The dissimulation of the Spanish court was fathomless.  The secret correspondence of the times reveals to us that its only purpose was to deceive the Queen and her counsellors, and to gain time to prepare the grand invasion of England and subjugation of Holland—­that double purpose which Philip could only abandon with life.  There was never a thought, on his part, of honest negotiation.  On the other hand, the Queen was sincere; Burghley and Hatton and Cobham were sincere; Croft was sincere, so far as Spain was concerned.  At least they had been sincere.  In the private and doleful dialogues between Bodman and Grafigni which we have just been overhearing, these intriguers spoke the truth, for they could have no wish to deceive each other, and no fear of eaves-droppers not to be born till centuries afterwards.  These conversations have revealed to us that the Lord Treasurer and three of his colleagues had been secretly doing their best to cripple Leicester, to stop the supplies for the Netherlands, and to patch up a hurried and unsatisfactory, if not a disgraceful peace; and this, with the concurrence of her Majesty.  After their plots had been discovered by the vigilant Secretary of State, there was a disposition to discredit the humbler instruments in the cabal.  Elizabeth was not desirous of peace.  Far from it.  She was qualmish at the very suggestion.  Dire was her wrath against Bodman, De Loo, Graafigni, and the rest, at their misrepresentations on the subject.  But she would “lend her ear.”  And that royal ear was lent, and almost fatal was the distillment poured into its porches.  The pith and marrow of the great Netherland enterprise was sapped by the slow poison of the ill-timed negotiation.  The fruit of Drake’s splendid triumphs in America was blighted by it.  The stout heart of the vainglorious but courageous Leicester was sickened by it, while, meantime, the maturing of the great armada-scheme, by which the destruction of England was to be accomplished, was furthered, through the unlimited procrastination so precious to the heart of Philip.

Fortunately the subtle Walsingham was there upon the watch to administer the remedy before it was quite too late; and to him England and the Netherlands were under lasting obligations.  While Alexander and Philip suspected a purpose on the part of the English government to deceive them, they could not help observing that the Earl of Leicester was both deserted and deceived.  Yet it had been impossible for the peace-party in the government wholly to conceal their designs, when such prating fellows as Grafigni and De Loo were employed in what was intended to be a secret negotiation.  In vain did the friends of Leicester in the Netherlands endeavour to account for the neglect with which he was treated, and for the destitution of his army.  Hopelessly did they attempt to counteract those “advertisements of most fearful instance,” as Richard Cavendish expressed himself, which were circulating everywhere.