The cause of the trouble was Flushing.  Hence the tears, and the coldness, and the scoldings, on the part of the imperious and the economical Queen.  Flushing was the patrimony—­a large portion of that which was left to him—­of Count Maurice.  It was deeply mortgaged for the payment of the debts of William the Silent, but his son Maurice, so long as the elder brother Philip William remained a captive in Spain, wrote himself Marquis of Flushing and Kampveer, and derived both revenue and importance from his rights in that important town.  The States of Zeeland, while desirous of a political fusion of the two countries, were averse from the prospect of converting, by exception, their commercial, capital into an English city, the remainder of the Provinces remaining meanwhile upon their ancient footing.  The negociations on the subject caused a most ill-timed delay.  The States finding the English government cooling, affected to grow tepid themselves.  This was the true mercantile system, perhaps, for managing a transaction most thriftily, but frankness and promptness would have been more statesmanlike at such a juncture.

“I am sorry to understand,” wrote Walsingham, “that the States are not yet grown to a full resolution for the delivering of the town of Flushing into her Majesty’s hands.  The Queen finding the people of that island so wavering and inconstant, besides that they can hardly, after the so long enjoying a popular liberty, bear a regal authority, would be loath to embark herself into so dangerous a war without some sufficient caution received from them.  It is also greatly to be doubted, that if, by practice and corruption, that town might be recovered by the Spaniards, it would put all the rest of the country in peril.  I find her Majesty, in case that town may be gotten, fully resolved to receive them into her protection, so as it may also be made probable unto her that the promised three hundred thousand guilders the month will be duly paid.”

A day or two after writing this letter, Walsingham sent one afternoon, in a great hurry, for Ortel, and informed him very secretly, that, according to information just received, the deputies from the States were coming without sufficient authority in regard to this very matter.  Thus all the good intentions of the English government were likely to be frustrated, and the Provinces to be reduced to direful extremity.

“What can we possibly advise her Majesty to do?” asked Walsingham, “since you are not willing to put confidence in her intentions.  You are trying to bring her into a public war, in which she is to risk her treasure and the blood of her subjects against the greatest potentates of the world, and you hesitate meantime at giving her such security as is required for the very defence of the Provinces themselves.  The deputies are coming hither to offer the sovereignty to her Majesty, as was recently done in France, or, if that should not