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The Project Gutenberg eBook ofHistory of the United Netherlands, 1587c
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Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1587c
Author: John Lothrop Motley
Release date: January 1, 2004 [eBook #4853] Most recently updated: December 28, 2020
Language: English
Credits: This eBook was produced by David Widger
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This eBook was produced by David Widger
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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce—1609
By John Lothrop Motley
MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 53
History of the United Netherlands, 1587
CHAPTER XVI.
Situation of Sluys—Its Dutch and English Garrison—Williams writes from Sluys to the Queen—Jealousy between the Earl and States— Schemes to relieve Sluys—Which are feeble and unsuccessful—The Town Capitulates—Parma enters—Leicester enraged—The Queen angry with the Anti-Leicestrians—Norris, Wilkes, and Buckhurst punished— Drake sails for Spain—His Exploits at Cadiz and Lisbon—He is rebuked by Elizabeth.
When Dante had passed through the third circle of the Inferno—a desertof red-hot sand, in which lay a multitude of victims of divine wrath,additionally tortured by an ever-descending storm of fiery flakes—he wasled by Virgil out of this burning wilderness along a narrow causeway.This path was protected, he said, against the showers of flame, by thelines of vapour which rose eternally from a boiling brook. Even by suchshadowy bulwarks, added the poet, do the Flemings between Kadzand andBruges protect their land against the ever-threatening sea.
It was precisely among these slender dykes between Kadzand and Brugesthat Alexander Farnese had now planted all the troops that he couldmuster in the field. It was his determination to conquer the city ofSluys; for the possession of that important sea-port was necessary forhim as a basis for the invasion of England, which now occupied all thethoughts of his sovereign and himself.
Exactly opposite the city was the island of Kadzand, once a fair andfertile territory, with a city and many flourishing villages upon itssurface, but at that epoch diminished to a small dreary sand-bank by theencroachments of the ocean.
A stream of inland water, rising a few leagues to the south of Sluys,divided itself into many branches just before reaching the city,converted the surrounding territory into a miniature archipelago—theislands of which were shifting treacherous sand-banks at low water, andsubmerged ones at flood—and then widening and deepening into aconsiderable estuary, opened for the city a capacious harbour, and anexcellent although intricate passage to the sea. The city, which waswell built and thriving, was so hidden in its labyrinth of canals andstreamlets, that it seemed almost as difficult a matter to find Sluys asto conquer it. It afforded safe harbour for five hundred large vessels;and its possession, therefore, was extremely important for Parma.Besides these natural defences, the place was also protected byfortifications; which were as well constructed as the best of thatperiod. There was a strong rampire and many towers. There was also adetached citadel of great strength, looking towards the sea, and therewas a ravelin, called St. Anne's, looking in the direction of Bruges.A mere riband of dry land in that quarter was all of solid earth to befound in the environs of Sluys.
The city itself stood upon firm soil, but that soil had been hollowedinto a vast system of subterranean magazines, not for warlike purposes,but for cellars, as Sluys had been from a remote period the greatentrepot of foreign wines in the Netherlands.
While the eternal disputes between Leicester and the States were going onboth in Holland and in England, while the secret negotiations betweenAlexander Farnese and Queen slowly proceeding at Brussels and Greenwich,the Duke, notwithstanding the destitute condition of his troops, and thefamine which prevailed throughout the obedient Provinces, had succeededin bringing a little army of five thousand foot, and something less thanone thousand horse, into the field. A portion of this force he placedunder the command of the veteran La Motte. That distinguished campaignerhad assured the commander-in-chief that the reduction of the city wouldbe an easy achievement. Alexander soon declared that the enterprise wasthe most difficult one that he had ever undertaken. Yet, two yearsbefore, he had carried to its triumphant conclusion the famous siege ofAntwerp. He stationed his own division upon the isle of Kadzand, andstrengthened his camp by additionally fortifying those shadowy bulwarks,by which the island, since the age of Dante, had entrenched itselfagainst the assaults of ocean.
On the other hand, La Motte, by the orders of his chief, had succeeded,after a sharp struggle, in carrying the fort of St. Anne. A still moreimportant step was the surprising of Blankenburg, a small fortified placeon the coast, about midway between Ostend and Sluys, by which the sea-communications with the former city for the relief of the beleagueredtown were interrupted.
Parma's demonstrations against Sluys had commenced in the early days ofJune. The commandant of the place was Arnold de Groenevelt, a Dutchnoble of ancient lineage and approved valour. His force was, however,very meagre, hardly numbering more than eight hundred, all Netherlanders,but counting among its officers several most distinguished personages-Nicholas de Maulde, Adolphus de Meetkerke and his younger brother,Captain Heraugiere, and other well-known partisans.
On the threatening of danger the commandant had made application toSir William Russell, the worthy successor of Sir Philip Sidney in thegovernment of Flushing. He had received from him, in consequence, areinforcement of eight hundred English soldiers, under several eminentchieftains, foremost among whom were the famous Welshman Roger Williams,Captain Huntley, Baskerville, Sir Francis Vere, Ferdinando Gorges, andCaptain Hart. This combined force, however, was but a slender one; therebeing but sixteen hundred men to protect two miles and a half of rampart,besides the forts and ravelins.
But, such as it was, no time was lost in vain regrets. The sortiesagainst the besiegers were incessant and brilliant. On one occasion SirFrancis Vere—conspicuous in the throng, in his red mantilla, andsupported only by one hundred Englishmen and Dutchmen, under CaptainBaskerville—held at bay eight companies of the famous Spanish legioncalled the Terzo Veijo, at push of pike, took many prisoners, and forcedthe Spaniards from the position in which they were entrenchingthemselves. On the other hand, Farnese declared that he had never in hislife witnessed anything so unflinching as the courage of his troops;employed as they were in digging trenches where the soil was neither landnor water, exposed to inundation by the suddenly-opened sluices, to aplunging fire from the forts, and to perpetual hand-to-hand combats withan active and fearless foe, and yet pumping away in the coffer-dams-whichthey had invented by way of obtaining a standing-ground for theiroperations—as steadily and sedately as if engaged in purely pacificemployments. The besieged here inspired by a courage equally remarkable.The regular garrison was small enough, but the burghers were courageous,and even the women organized themselves into a band of pioneers. Thiscorps of Amazons, led by two female captains, rejoicing in the names of'May in the Heart' and 'Catherine the Rose,' actually constructed animportant redoubt between the citadel and the rampart, which received, incompliment to its builders, the appellation of 'Fort Venus.'
The demands of the beleaguered garrison, however, upon the States andupon Leicester were most pressing. Captain Hart swam thrice out of thecity with letters to the States, to the governor-general, and to QueenElizabeth; and the same perilous feat was performed several times by aNetherland officer. The besieged meant to sell their lives dearly, butit was obviously impossible for them, with so slender a force, to resista very long time.
"Our ground is great and our men not so many," wrote Roger Williams tohis sovereign, "but we trust in God and our valour to defend it . . .. . . . We mean, with God's help, to make their downs red and black,and to let out every acre of our ground for a thousand of their lives,besides our own."
The Welshman was no braggart, and had proved often enough that he wasmore given to performances than promises. "We doubt not your Majestywill succour us," he said, "for our honest mind and plain dealing towardyour royal person and dear country;" adding, as a bit of timely advice,"Royal Majesty, believe not over much your peacemakers. Had they theirmind, they will not only undo your friend's abroad, but, in the end, yourroyal estate."
Certainly it was from no want of wholesome warning from wise statesmenand blunt soldiers that the Queen was venturing into that labyrinth ofnegotiation which might prove so treacherous. Never had been soinopportune a moment for that princess to listen to the voice of him whowas charming her so wisely, while he was at the same moment batteringthe place, which was to be the basis of his operations against herrealm. Her delay in sending forth Leicester, with at least a moderatecontingent, to the rescue, was most pernicious. The States—ignorantof the Queen's exact relations with Spain, and exaggerating herdisingenuousness into absolute perfidy became on their own partexceedingly to blame. There is no doubt whatever that both Hollandersand English men were playing into the hands of Parma as adroitly as ifhe had actually directed their movements. Deep were the denunciationsof Leicester and his partisans by the States' party, and incessant thecomplaints of the English and Dutch troops shut up in Sluys against theinactivity or treachery of Maurice and Hohenlo.
"If Count Maurice and his base brother, the Admiral (Justinus de Nassau),be too young to govern, must Holland and Zeeland lose their countries andtowns to make them expert men of war?" asked Roger Williams.' A pregnantquestion certainly, but the answer was, that by suspicion and jealousy,rather than by youth and inexperience, the arms were paralyzed whichshould have saved the garrison. "If these base fellows (the States) willmake Count Hollock their instrument," continued the Welshman; "to coverand maintain their folly and lewd dealing, is it necessary for her royalMajesty to suffer it? These are too great matters to be rehearsed by me;but because I am in the town, and do resolve to, sign with my blood myduty in serving my sovereign and country, I trust her Majesty will pardonme." Certainly the gallant adventurer on whom devolved at least half thework of directing the defence of the city, had a right to express hisopinions. Had he known the whole truth, however, those opinions wouldhave been modified. And he wrote amid the smoke and turmoil of daily andnightly battle.
"Yesterday was the fifth sally we made," he observed: "Since I followedthe wars I never saw valianter captains, nor willinger soldiers. Ateleven o'clock the enemy entered the ditch of our fort, with trenchesupon wheels, artillery-proof. We sallied out, recovered their trenches,slew the governor of Dam, two Spanish captains, with a number of others,repulsed them into their artillery, kept the ditch until yesternight, andwill recover it, with God's help, this night, or else pay dearly for it .. . . . I care not what may become of me in this world, so that herMajesty's honour,—with the rest of honourable good friends, will thinkme an honest man."
No one ever doubted the simple-hearted Welshman's honesty, any more thanhis valour; but he confided in the candour of others who were somewhatmore sophisticated than himself. When he warned her, royal Majestyagainst the peace-makers, it was impossible for him to know that thegreat peace-maker was Elizabeth herself.
After the expiration of a month the work had become most fatiguing. Theenemy's trenches had been advanced close to the ramparts, and desperateconflicts were of daily occurrence. The Spanish mines, too, had beenpushed forward towards the extensive wine-caverns below the city, and thedanger of a vast explosion or of a general assault from beneath theirvery feet, seemed to the inhabitants imminent. Eight days long, withscarcely an intermission, amid those sepulchral vaults, dimly-lightedwith torches, Dutchmen, Englishmen, Spaniards, Italians, fought hand tohand, with pike, pistol, and dagger, within the bowels of the earth.
Meantime the operations of the States were not commendable. Theineradicable jealousy between the Leicestrians and the Barneveldians haddone its work. There was no hearty effort for the relief of Sluys.There were suspicions that, if saved, the town would only be takenpossession of by the Earl of Leicester, as an additional vantage-pointfor coercing the country into subjection to his arbitrary authority.Perhaps it would be transferred to Philip by Elizabeth as part of theprice for peace. There was a growing feeling in Holland and Zeeland thatas those Provinces bore all the expense of the war, it was an imperativenecessity that they should limit their operations to the defence of theirown soil. The suspicions as to the policy of the English government weresapping the very foundations of the alliance, and there was smalldisposition on the part of the Hollanders, therefore, to protect whatremained of Flanders, and thus to strengthen the hands of her whom theywere beginning to look upon as an enemy.
Maurice and Hohenlo made, however, a foray into Brabant, by way ofdiversion to the siege of Sluys, and thus compelled Farnese to detach aconsiderable force under Haultepenne into that country, and thereby toweaken himself. The expedition of Maurice was not unsuccessful. Therewas some sharp skirmishing between Hohenlo and Haultepenne, in which thelatter, one of the most valuable and distinguished generals on the royalside, was defeated and slain; the fort of Engel, near Bois-le-Duc, wastaken, and that important city itself endangered; but, on the other hand,the contingent on which Leicester relied from the States to assist inrelieving Sluys was not forthcoming.
For, meantime, the governor-general had at last been sent back by hissovereign to the post which he had so long abandoned. Leaving LeicesterHouse on the 4th July (N. S.), he had come on board the fleet two daysafterwards at Margate. He was bringing with him to the Netherlands threethousand fresh infantry, and thirty thousand pounds, of which sum fifteenthousand pounds had been at last wrung from Elizabeth as an extra loan,in place of the sixty thousand pounds which the States had requested. Ashe sailed past Ostend and towards Flushing, the Earl was witness to theconstant cannonading between the besieged city and the camp of Farnese,and saw that the work could hardly be more serious; for in one short daymore shots were fired than had ever been known before in a single day inall Parma's experience.
Arriving at Flushing, the governor-general was well received by theinhabitants; but the mischief, which had been set a-foot six monthsbefore, had done its work. The political intrigues, disputes, and theconflicting party-organizations, have already been set in great detailbefore the reader, in order that their effect might now be thoroughlyunderstood without—explanation. The governor-general came to Flushingat a most critical moment. The fate of all the Spanish Netherlands, ofSluys, and with it the whole of Philip and Parma's great project, were,in Farnese's own language, hanging by a thread.
It would have been possible—had the transactions of the past six months,so far as regarded Holland and England, been the reverse of what they hadbeen—to save the city; and, by a cordial and united effort, for the twocountries to deal the Spanish power such a blow, that summer, as wouldhave paralyzed it for a long time to come, and have placed bothcommonwealths in comparative security.
Instead of all this, general distrust and mutual jealousy prevailed.Leicester had, previously to his departure from England, summoned theStates to meet him at Dort upon his arrival. Not a soul appeared. Suchof the state-councillors as were his creatures came to him, and CountMaurice made a visit of ceremony. Discussions about a plan for relievingthe siege became mere scenes of bickering and confusion. The officerswithin Sluys were desirous that a fleet should force its way into theharbour, while, at the same time, the English army, strengthened by thecontingent which Leicester had demanded from the States, should advanceagainst the Duke of Parma by land. It was, in truth, the only way tosuccour the place. The scheme was quite practicable. Leicesterrecommended it, the Hollanders seemed to favour it, Commandant Groeneveltand Roger Williams urged it.
"I do assure you," wrote the honest Welshman to Leicester, "if you willcome afore this town, with as many galliots and as many flat-bottomedboats as can cause two men-of-war to enter, they cannot stop theirpassage, if, your mariners will do a quarter of their duty, as I saw themdo divers times. Before, they make their entrance, we will come with ourboats, and fight with the greatest part, and show them there is no suchgreat danger. Were it not for my wounded arm, I would be, in your firstboat to enter. Notwithstanding, I and other Englishmen will approachtheir boats in such sort, that we will force them to give their saker ofartillery upon us. If, your Excellency will give ear unto those falselewd fellows (the Captain meant the States-General), you shall lose greatopportunity. Within ten or twelve days the enemy will make his bridgefrom Kadzand unto St. Anne, and force you to hazard battle before yousuccour this town. Let my Lord Willoughby and Sir William Russell landat Terhoven, right against Kadzand, with 4000, and entrench hard by thewaterside, where their boats can carry them victual and munition. Theymay approach by trenches without engaging any dangerous fight . . . .We dare not show the estate of this town more than we have done byCaptain Herte. We must fight this night within our rampart in the fort.You may sure the world here are no Hamerts, but valiant captains andvaliant soldiers, such as, with God's help, had rather be buried in theplace than be disgraced in any point that belongs to such a number ofmen-of-war."
But in vain did the governor of the place, stout Arnold Froenevelt,assisted by the rough and direct eloquence of Roger Williams, urge uponthe Earl of Leicester and the States-General the necessity and thepracticability of the plan proposed. The fleet never entered theharbour. There was no William of Orange to save Antwerp and Sluys,as Leyden had once been saved, and his son was not old enough to unravelthe web of intrigue by which he was surrounded, or to direct the wholeenergies of the commonwealth towards an all-important end. Leicester hadlost all influence, all authority, nor were his military abilities equalto the occasion, even if he had been cordially obeyed.
Ten days longer the perpetual battles on the ramparts and within themines continued, the plans conveyed by the bold swimmer, Captain Hart,for saving the place were still unattempted, and the city was totteringto its fall. "Had Captain Hart's words taken place," wrote Williams,bitterly," we had been succoured, or, if my letters had prevailed, ourpain had been, no peril: All wars are best executed in sight of the enemy. . . . The last night of June (10th July, N. S.) the enemy enteredthe ditches of our fort in three several places, continuing in fight inmine and on rampart for the space of eight nights. The ninth; hebattered us furiously, made a breach of five score paces suitable forhorse and man. That day be attempted us in all, places with a general,assault for the space of almost five hours."
The citadel was now lost. It had been gallantly defended; and it wasthenceforth necessary to hold the town itself, in the very teeth of anoverwhelming force. "We were forced to quit the fort," said-Sir Roger,"leaving nothing behind us but bare earth. But here we do remainresolutely to be buried, rather than to be dishonoured in the leastpoint."
It was still possible for the fleet to succour the city. "I do assureyou," said-Williams, "that your captains and mariners do not their dutyunless they enter with no great loss; but you must consider that no warsmay be made without danger. What you mean to do, we beseech you to dowith expedition, and persuade yourself that we will die valiant, honest-men. Your Excellency will do well to thank the old President de Meetkerkfar the honesty and valour of his son."
Count Maurice and his natural brother, the Admiral, now undertook thesuccour by sea; but, according to the Leicestrians, they continueddilatory and incompetent. At any rate, it is certain that they didnothing. At last, Parma had completed the bridge; whose construction,was so much dreaded: The haven was now enclosed by a strong woodenstructure, resting an boats, on a plan similar to that of the famousbridge with which he had two years before bridled the Scheldt, and Sluyswas thus completely shut in from the sea. Fire-ships were nowconstructed, by order of Leicester—feeble imitations: of the floatingvolcanoes of Gianihelli—and it was agreed that they should be sentagainst the bridge with the first flood-tide. The propitious momentnever seemed to arrive, however, and, meantime, the citizens of Flushing,of their own accord, declared that they would themselves equip andconduct a fleet into the harbour of Sluys. But the Nassaus are said tohave expressed great disgust that low-born burghers should presume tomeddle with so important an enterprise, which of right belonged to theirfamily. Thus, in the midst of these altercations and contradictoryschemes; the month of July wore away, and the city was reduced to itslast gasp.
For the cannonading had thoroughly done its work. Eighteen days long theburghers and what remained of the garrison had lived upon the ramparts,never leaving their posts, but eating, sleeping, and fighting day andnight. Of the sixteen hundred Dutch and English but seven hundredremained. At last a swimming messenger was sent out by the besieged withdespatches for the States, to the purport that the city could hold out nolonger. A breach in the wall had been effected wide enough to admit ahundred men abreast. Sluys had, in truth, already fallen, and it washopeless any longer to conceal the fact. If not relieved within a day ortwo, the garrison would be obliged to surrender; but they distinctlystated, that they had all pledged themselves, soldiers and burghers, men,women, and all, unless the most honourable terms were granted, to setfire to the city in a hundred places, and then sally, in mass, from thegates, determined to fight their way through, or be slain in the attempt.The messenger who carried these despatches was drowned, but the letterswere saved, and fell into Parma's hands.
At the same moment, Leicester was making, at last, an effort to raise thesiege. He brought three or four thousand men from Flushing, and landedthem at Ostend; thence he marched to Blanckenburg. He supposed that ifhe could secure that little port, and thus cut the Duke completely offfrom the sea, he should force the Spanish commander to raise (or at leastsuspend) the siege in order to give him battle. Meantime, an opportunitywould be afforded for Maurice and Hohenlo to force an entrance into theharbour of Sluys, In this conjecture he was quite correct; butunfortunately he did not thoroughly carry out his own scheme. If theEarl had established himself at Blanckenburg, it would have beennecessary for Parma—as he himself subsequently declared-to raise thesiege. Leicester carried the outposts of the place successfully; but, sosoon as Farnese was aware of this demonstration, he detached a fewcompanies with orders to skirmish with the enemy until the commander-in-chief, with as large a force as he could spare, should come in person tohis support. To the unexpected gratification of Farnese, however, nosooner did the advancing Spaniards come in sight, than the Earl,supposing himself invaded by the whole of the Duke's army, under theirfamous general, and not feeling himself strong enough for such anencounter, retired, with great precipitation, to his boats, re-embarkedhis troops with the utmost celerity, and set sail for Ostend.
The next night had been fixed for sending forth the fireships against thebridge, and for the entrance of the fleet into the harbour. One fire-ship floated a little way towards the bridge and exploded ingloriously.Leicester rowed in his barge about the fleet, superintending thesoundings and markings of the channel, and hastening the preparations;but, as the decisive moment approached, the pilots who had promised toconduct the expedition came aboard his pinnace and positively refused tohave aught to do with the enterprise, which they now declared animpossibility. The Earl was furious with the pilots, with Maurice, withHohenlo, with Admiral de Nassau, with the States, with all the world. Hestormed and raged and beat his breast, but all in vain. His ferocitywould have been more useful the day before, in face of the Spaniards,than now, against the Zeeland mariners: but the invasion by the fleetalone, unsupported by a successful land-operation, was pronouncedimpracticable, and very soon tie relieving fleet was seen by thedistressed garrison sailing away from the neighbourhood, and it soondisappeared beneath the horizon. Their fate was sealed. They enteredinto treaty with Parma, who, secretly instructed, as has been seen, oftheir desperate intentions, in case any but the most honourableconditions were offered, granted those conditions. The garrison wereallowed to go out with colours displayed, lighted matches, bullet inmouth, and with bag and baggage. Such burghers as chose to conform tothe government of Spain and the church of Rome; were permitted to remain.Those who preferred to depart were allowed reasonable time to make theirnecessary arrangements.
"We have hurt and slain very near eight hundred," said Sir RogerWilliams." We had not powder to fight two hours. There was a breach ofalmost four hundred paces, another of three score, another of fifty,saltable for horse and men. We had lain continually eighteen nights allon the breaches. He gave us honourable composition. Had the state ofEngland lain on it, our lives could not defend the place, three hours,for half the rampires were his, neither had we any pioneers butourselves. We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us."
On the 5th August Parma entered the city. Roger Williams with his giltmorion rather battered, and his great plume of feathers much bedraggled-was a witness to the victor's entrance. Alexander saluted respectfullyan officer so well known to him by reputation, and with somecomplimentary remarks urged him to enter the Spanish service,and to take the field against the Turks.
"My sword," replied the doughty Welshman, "belongs to her royal Majesty,Queen Elizabeth, above and before all the world. When her Highness hasno farther use for it, it is at the service of the King of Navarre."Considering himself sufficiently answered, the Duke then requested SirRoger to point out Captain Baskerville—very conspicuous by a greaterplume of feathers than even that of the Welshman himself—and embracedthat officer; when presented to him, before all his staff. "There servesno prince in Europe a braver man than this Englishman," cried Alexander,who well knew how to appreciate high military qualities, whether in hisown army or in that of his foes.
The garrison then retired, Sluy's became Spanish, and a capaciousharbour, just opposite the English coast, was in Parma's hands. SirRoger Williams was despatched by Leicester to bear the melancholy tidingsto his government, and the Queen was requested to cherish the honestWelshman, and at least to set him on horseback; for he was of himself notrich enough to buy even a saddle. It is painful to say that the captaindid not succeed in getting the horse.
The Earl was furious in his invectives against Hohenlo, against Maurice,against the States, uniformly ascribing the loss of Sluy's to negligenceand faction. As for Sir John Norris, he protested that his misdeeds inregard to this business would, in King Henry VIII.'s time, have "cost himhis pate."
The loss of Sluys was the beginning and foreshadowed the inevitable endof Leicester's second administration. The inaction of the States was oneof the causes of its loss. Distrust of Leicester was the cause of theinaction. Sir William Russell, Lord Willoughby, Sir William Pelham, andother English officers, united in statements exonerating the Earl fromall blame for the great failure to relieve the place. At the same time,it could hardly be maintained that his expedition to Blanckenburg and hisprecipitate retreat on the first appearance of the enemy were proofs ofconsummate generalship. He took no blame to himself for the disaster;but he and his partisans were very liberal in their denunciations of theHollanders, and Leicester was even ungrateful enough to censure RogerWilliams, whose life had been passed, as it were, at push of pike withthe Spaniards, and who was one of his own most devoted adherents.
The Queen was much exasperated when informed of the fall of the city.She severely denounced the Netherlanders, and even went so far as toexpress dissatisfaction with the great Leicester himself. Meantime,Farnese was well satisfied with his triumph, for he had been informedthat "all England was about to charge upon him," in order to relieve theplace. All England, however, had been but feebly represented by threethousand raw recruits with a paltry sum of L15,000 to help pay a longbill of arrears.
Wilkes and Norris had taken their departure from the Netherlands beforethe termination of the siege, and immediately after the return ofLeicester. They did not think it expedient to wait upon the governorbefore leaving the country, for they had very good reason to believe thatsuch an opportunity of personal vengeance would be turned to account bythe Earl. Wilkes had already avowed his intention of making his escapewithout being dandled with leave-takings, and no doubt he was right. TheEarl was indignant when he found that they had given him the slip, anddenounced them with fresh acrimony to the Queen, imploring her to wreakfull measure of wrath upon their heads; and he well knew that hisentreaties would meet with the royal attention.
Buckhurst had a parting interview with the governor-general, at whichKilligrew and Beale, the new English counsellors who had replaced Wilkesand Clerk, were present. The conversation was marked by insolence on thepart of Leicester, and by much bitterness on that of Buckhurst. Theparting envoy refused to lay before the Earl a full statement of thegrievances between the States-General and the governor, on the groundthat Leicester had no right to be judge in his own cause. The matter,he said, should be laid before the Queen in council, and by her augustdecision he was willing to abide. On every other subject he was ready togive any information in his power. The interview lasted a whole forenoonand afternoon. Buckhurst, according to his own statement, answered,freely all questions put to him by Leicester and his counsellors; while,if the report of those personages is to be trusted, he passionatelyrefused to make any satisfactory communication. Under the circumstances,however, it may well be believed that no satisfactory communication waspossible.
On arriving in England, Sir John Norris was forbidden to come into her Majesty's presence, Wilkes was thrown into the Fleet Prison, and Buckhurst was confined in his own country house.
Norris had done absolutely nothing, which, even by implication, could beconstrued into a dereliction of duty; but it was sufficient that he washated by Leicester, who had not scrupled, over and over again, todenounce this first general of England as a fool, a coward, a knave, anda liar.
As for Wilkes, his only crime was a most conscientious discharge of hisduty, in the course of which he had found cause to modify his abstractopinions in regard to the origin of sovereignty, and had come reluctantlyto the conviction that Leicester's unpopularity had made perhaps anothergovernor-general desirable. But this admission had only been madeprivately and with extreme caution; while, on the other hand, he hadconstantly defended the absent Earl, with all the eloquence at hiscommand. But the hatred cf Leicester was sufficient to consign this ableand painstaking public servant to a prison; and thus was a man of worth,honour, and talent, who had been placed in a position of graveresponsibility and immense fatigue, and who had done his duty like anupright, straight-forward Englishman, sacrificed to the wrath of afavourite. "Surely, Mr. Secretary," said the Earl, "there was never afalser creature, a more seditious wretch, than Wilkes. He is a villain,a devil, without faith or religion."
As for Buckhurst himself, it is unnecessary to say a word in his defence.The story of his mission has been completely detailed from the mostauthentic and secret documents, and there is not a single line written tothe Queen, to her ministers, to the States, to any public body or to anyprivate friend, in England or elsewhere, that does not reflect honour onhis name. With sagacity, without passion, with unaffected sincerity,he had unravelled the complicated web of Netherland politics, and, withclear vision, had penetrated the designs of the mighty enemy whom Englandand Holland had to encounter in mortal combat. He had pointed out theerrors of the Earl's administration—he had fearlessly, earnestly, butrespectfully deplored the misplaced parsimony of the Queen—he had warnedher against the delusions which had taken possession of her keenintellect—he had done—his best to place the governor-general upon goodterms with the States and with his sovereign; but it had been impossiblefor him to further his schemes for the acquisition of a virtualsovereignty over the Netherlands, or to extinguish the suspicions of theStates that the Queen was secretly negotiating with the Spaniard, when heknew those suspicions to be just.
For deeds, such as these, the able and high-minded ambassador,the accomplished statesman and poet, was forbidden to approach hissovereign's presence, and was ignominiously imprisoned in his own houseuntil the death of Leicester. After that event, Buckhurst emerged fromconfinement, received the order of the garter and the Earldom of Dorset,and on the death of Burghley succeeded that statesman in the office ofLord-Treasurer. Such was the substantial recognition of the merits of aman who was now disgraced for the conscientious discharge of the mostimportant functions that had yet been confided to him.
It would be a thankless and superfluous task to give the details of therenewed attempt, during a few months, made by Leicester to govern theProvinces. His second administration consisted mainly of the samealtercations with the States, on the subject of sovereignty, the samemutual recriminations and wranglings, that had characterized the periodof his former rule. He rarely met the States in person, and almost neverresided at the Hague, holding his court at Middleburg, Dort, or Utrecht,as his humour led him.
The one great feature of the autumn of 1587 was the private negotiationbetween Elizabeth and the Duke of Parma.
Before taking a glance at the nature of those secrets, however, it isnecessary to make a passing allusion to an event which might have seemedlikely to render all pacific communications with Spain, whether secret oropen, superfluous.
For while so much time had been lost in England and Holland, bymisunderstandings and jealousies, there was one Englishman who had notbeen losing time. In the winter and early spring of 1587, the Devonshireskipper had organized that expedition which he had come to theNetherlands, the preceding autumn, to discuss. He meant to aim a blowat the very heart of that project which Philip was shrouding with so muchmystery, and which Elizabeth was attempting to counteract by so muchdiplomacy.
On the 2nd April, Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth with four shipsbelonging to the Queen, and with twenty-four furnished by the merchantsof London, and other private individuals. It was a bold buccaneeringexpedition—combining chivalrous enterprise with the chance of enormousprofit—which was most suited to the character of English adventurers atthat expanding epoch. For it was by England, not by Elizabeth, that thequarrel with Spain was felt to be a mortal one. It was England, not itssovereign, that was instinctively arming, at all points, to grapple withthe great enemy of European liberty. It was the spirit of self-help, ofself-reliance, which was prompting the English nation to take the greatwork of the age into its own hands. The mercantile instinct of thenation was flattered with the prospect of gain, the martial quality ofits patrician and of its plebeian blood was eager to confront danger, thegreat Protestant mutiny. Against a decrepit superstition in combinationwith an aggressive tyranny, all impelled the best energies of the Englishpeople against Spain, as the embodiment of all which was odious andmenacing to them, and with which they felt that the life and deathstruggle could not long be deferred.
And of these various tendencies, there were no more fittingrepresentatives than Drake and Frobisher, Hawkins and Essex, Cavendishand Grenfell, and the other privateersmen of the sixteenth century. Thesame greed for danger, for gold, and for power, which, seven centuriesbefore, had sent the Norman race forth to conquer all Christendom, wasnow sending its Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman kindred to take possessionof the old world and the new.
"The wind commands me away," said Drake on the 2nd April, 1587; "our shipis under sail. God grant that we may so live in His fear, that the enemymay have cause to say that God doth fight for her Majesty abroad as wellas at home."
But he felt that he was not without enemies behind him, for the stronginfluence brought to bear against the bold policy which Walsinghamfavoured, was no secret to Drake. "If we deserve ill," said he, "let usbe punished. If we discharge our duty, in doing our best, it is a hardmeasure to be reported ill by those who will either keep their fingersout of the fire; or who too well affect that alteration in our governmentwhich I hope in God they shall never live to see." In latitude 40 deg.he spoke two Zeeland ships, homeward bound, and obtained information ofgreat warlike stores accumulating in Cadiz and Lisbon. His mind wasinstantly made up. Fortunately, the pinnace which the Queen despatchedwith orders to stay his hand in the very act of smiting her greatadversary, did not sail fast enough to overtake the swift corsair and hisfleet. Sir Francis had too promptly obeyed the wind, when it "commandedhim away," to receive the royal countermand. On the 19th April, theEnglish ships entered the harbour of Cadiz, and destroyed ten thousandtons of shipping, with their contents, in the very face of a dozen greatgalleys, which the nimble English vessels soon drove under their fortsfor shelter. Two nights and a day, Sir Francis, that "hater ofidleness," was steadily doing his work; unloading, rifling, scuttling,sinking, and burning those transportships which contained a portion ofthe preparations painfully made by Philip for his great enterprise.Pipe-staves and spikes, horse-shoes and saddles, timber and cutlasses,wine, oil, figs, raisins, biscuits, and flour, a miscellaneous mass ofingredients long brewing for the trouble of England, were emptied intothe harbour, and before the second night, the blaze of a hundred andfifty burning vessels played merrily upon the grim walls of Philip'sfortresses. Some of these ships were of the largest size then known.There was one belonging to Marquis Santa Cruz of 1500 tons, there was aBiscayan of 1200, there were several others of 1000, 800, and of nearlyequal dimensions.
Thence sailing for Lisbon, Sir Francis, captured and destroyed a hundredvessels more, appropriating what was portable of the cargoes, andannihilating the rest. At Lisbon, Marquis Santa Cruz, lord high admiralof Spain and generalissimo of the invasion, looked on, mortified andamazed, but offering no combat, while the Plymouth privateersman sweptthe harbour of the great monarch of the world. After thoroughlyaccomplishing his work, Drake sent a message to Santa Cruz, proposing toexchange his prisoners for such Englishmen as might then be confined inSpain. But the marquis denied all prisoners. Thereupon Sir Francisdecided to sell his captives to the Moors, and to appropriate theproceeds of the sale towards the purchase of English slaves put of thesame bondage. Such was the fortune of war in the sixteenth century.
Having dealt these great blows, Drake set sail again from Lisbon, and,twenty leagues from St. Michaels, fell in with one of those famousSpanish East Indiamen, called carracks, then the great wonder of theseas. This vessel, San Felipe by name, with a cargo of extraordinaryvalue, was easily captured, and Sir Francis now determined to return. Hehad done a good piece of work in a few weeks, but he was by no means ofopinion that he had materially crippled the enemy. On the contrary, hegave the government warning as to the enormous power and vastpreparations of Spain. "There would be forty thousand men under way erelong," he said, "well equipped and provisioned; "and he stated, as theresult of personal observation, that England could not be too energeticin, its measures of resistance. He had done something with his littlefleet, but he was no braggart, and had no disposition to underrate theenemy's power. "God make us all thankful again and again," he observed,"that we have, although it be little, made a beginning upon the coast ofSpain." And modestly as he spoke of what he had accomplished, so withquiet self-reliance did he allude to the probable consequences. It wascertain, he intimated, that the enemy would soon seek revenge with allhis strength, and "with all the devices and traps he could devise." Thiswas a matter which could not be doubted. "But," said Sir Francis, "Ithank them much that they have staid so long, and when they come theyshall be but the sons of mortal men."
Perhaps the most precious result of the expedition, was the lesson whichthe Englishmen had thus learned in handling the great galleys of Spain.It might soon stand them in stead. The little war-vessels which had comefrom Plymouth, had sailed round and round these vast unwieldy hulks, andhad fairly driven them off the field, with very slight damage tothemselves. Sir Francis had already taught the mariners of England,even if he had done nothing else by this famous Cadiz expedition,that an armada, of Spain might not be so invincible as men imagined.
Yet when the conqueror returned from his great foray, he received nolaurels. His sovereign met him, not with smiles, but with frowns andcold rebukes. He had done his duty, and helped to save her endangeredthrone, but Elizabeth was now the dear friend of Alexander Farnese, andin amicable correspondence with his royal master. This "little"beginning on the coast of Spain might not seem to his Catholic Majestya matter to be thankful for, nor be likely to further a pacification,and so Elizabeth hastened to disavow her Plymouth captain.'
["True it is, and I avow it on my faith, her Majesty did send a ship expressly before he went to Cadiz with a message by letters charging Sir Francis Drake not to show any act of hostility, which messenger by contrary winds could never come to the place where he was, but was constrained to come home, and hearing of Sir F. Drake's actions, her Majesty commanded the party that returned to have been punished, but that he acquitted himself by the oaths of himself and all his company. And so unwitting yea unwilling to her Majesty those actions were committed by Sir F. Drake, for the which her Majesty is as yet greatly offended with him." Burghley to Andreas de Loo, 18 July, 1587. Flanders Correspondence.' (S. P. Office MS.)]
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The blaze of a hundred and fifty burning vessels We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us
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