In spite of this savage spirit, which modern documents, if they did not scorn, would, at least have shrouded, the paper was nevertheless a sagacious one; but the request for the memoir, and the many interviews on the subject of the invasion, were only intended to deceive.  They were but the curtain which concealed the preparations for the dark tragedy which was about to be enacted.  Equally deceived, and more sanguine than ever, Louis Nassau during this period was indefatigable in his attempts to gain friends for his cause.  He had repeated audiences of the King, to whose court he had come in disguise.  He made a strong and warm impression upon Elizabeth’s envoy at the French Court, Walsingham.  It is probable that in the Count’s impetuosity to carry his point, he allowed more plausibility to be given to certain projects for subdividing the Netherlands than his brother would ever have sanctioned.  The Prince was a total stranger to these inchoate schemes.  His work was to set his country free, and to destroy the tyranny which had grown colossal.  That employment was sufficient for a lifetime, and there is no proof to be found that a paltry and personal self-interest had even the lowest place among his motives.

Meantime, in the autumn of 1569, Orange had again reached Germany.  Paul Buys, Pensionary of Leyden, had kept him constantly informed of the state of affairs in the provinces.  Through his means an extensive correspondence was organized and maintained with leading persons in every part of the Netherlands.  The conventional terms by which different matters and persons of importance were designated in these letters were familiarly known to all friends of the cause, not only in the provinces, but in France, England, Germany, and particularly in the great commercial cities.  The Prince, for example, was always designated as Martin Willemzoon, the Duke of Alva as Master Powels van Alblas, the Queen of England as Henry Philipzoon, the King of Denmark as Peter Peterson.  The twelve signs of the zodiac were used instead of the twelve months, and a great variety of similar substitutions were adopted.  Before his visit to France, Orange had, moreover, issued commissions, in his capacity of sovereign, to various seafaring persons, who were empowered to cruise against Spanish commerce.

The “beggars of the sea,” as these privateersmen designated themselves, soon acquired as terrible a name as the wild beggars, or the forest beggars; but the Prince, having had many conversations with Admiral Coligny on the important benefits to be derived from the system, had faithfully set himself to effect a reformation of its abuses after his return from France.  The Seigneur de Dolhain, who, like many other refugee nobles, had acquired much distinction in this roving corsair life, had for a season acted as Admiral for the Prince.  He had, however, resolutely declined to render any accounts of his various expeditions, and was now deprived of his command in consequence.