Yet the Earl’s real griefs against Buys may be easily summed up.  The lewd sinner, nursled in revolutions, had detected the secret policy of the Queen’s government, and was therefore perpetually denouncing the intrigues going on with Spain.  He complained that her Majesty was tired of having engaged in the Netherland enterprise; he declared that she would be glad to get fairly out of it; that her reluctance to spend a farthing more in the cause than she was obliged to do was hourly increasing upon her; that she was deceiving and misleading the States-General; and that she was hankering after a peace.  He said that the Earl had a secret intention to possess himself of certain towns in Holland, in which case the whole question of peace and war would be in the hands of the Queen, who would also have it thus in her power to reimburse herself at once for all expenses that she had incurred.

It would be difficult to show that there was anything very calumnious in these charges, which, no doubt, Paul was in the habit of making.  As to the economical tendencies of her Majesty, sufficient evidence has been given already from Leicester’s private letters.  “Rather than spend one hundred pounds,” said Walsingham, “she can be content to be deceived of five thousand.”  That she had been concealing from the Staten, from Walsingham, from Leicester, during the whole summer, her secret negotiations with Spain, has also been made apparent.  That she was disgusted with the enterprise in which she had embarked, Walsingham, Burghley, Hatton, and all the other statesmen of England, most abundantly testified.  Whether Leicester had really an intention to possess himself of certain cities in Holland—­a charge made by Paul Buys, and denounced as especially slanderous by the Earl—­may better appear from his own private statements.

“This I will do,” he wrote to the Queen, “and I hope not to fail of it, to get into my hands three or four most principal places in North Holland; which will be such a strength and assurance for your Majesty, as you shall see you shall both rule these men and make war or peace as you list, always provided—­whatsoever you hear, or is—­part not with the Brill; and having these places in your hands, whatsoever should chance to these countries, your Majesty, I will warrant sure enough to make what peace you will in an hour, and to have your debts and charges readily answered.”  At a somewhat later moment it will be seen what came of these secret designs.  For the present, Leicester was very angry with Paul for daring to suspect him of such treachery.

The Earl complained, too, that the influence of Buys with Hohenlo and young Maurice of Nassau was most pernicious.  Hohenlo had formerly stood high in Leicester’s opinion.  He was a “plain, faithful soldier, a most valiant gentleman,” and he was still more important, because about to marry Mary of Nassau; eldest slaughter, of William the Silent, and coheiress with Philip William, to the Buren property.  But he had been tampered with by the intriguing Paul Buys, and had then wished to resign his office under Leicester.  Being pressed for reasons, he had “grown solemn,” and withdrawn himself almost entirely.