other office but that of master of the horse?  “And then,” asked one particular busy body, who made himself very unpleasant on the Amsterdam Exchange, “why has her Majesty forbidden all noblemen and gentlemen from coming hither, as was the case at the beginning?  Is it because she is hearkening to a peace?  And if it be so, quoth he, we are well handled; for if her Majesty hath sent a disgraced man to amuse us, while she is secretly working a peace for herself, when we—­on the contrary—­had broken off all our negotiations, upon confidence of her Majesty’s goodness; such conduct will be remembered to the end of the world, and the Hollanders will never abide the name of England again.”

On such a bed of nettles there was small chance of repose for the governor.  Some of the rumours were even more stinging.  So incomprehensible did it seem that the proud sovereign of England should send over her subjects to starve or beg in the streets of Flushing and Ostend, that it was darkly intimated that Leicester had embezzled the funds, which, no doubt, had been remitted for the poor soldiers.  This was the most cruel blow of all.  The Earl had been put to enormous charges.  His household at the Hague cost him a thousand pounds a month.  He had been paying and furnishing five hundred and fifty men out of his own purse.  He had also a choice regiment of cavalry, numbering seven hundred and fifty horse; three hundred and fifty of which number were over and above those allowed for by the Queen, and were entirely at his expense.  He was most liberal in making presents of money to every gentleman in his employment.  He had deeply mortgaged his estates in order to provide for these heavy demands upon him, and professed his willingness “to spend more, if he might have got any more money for his land that was left;” and in the face of such unquestionable facts—­much to the credit certainly of his generosity—­he was accused of swindling a Queen whom neither Jew nor Gentile had ever yet been sharp enough to swindle; while he was in reality plunging forward in a course of reckless extravagance in order to obviate the fatal effects of her penuriousness.

Yet these sinister reports were beginning to have a poisonous effect.  Already an alteration of mien was perceptible in the States-General.  “Some buzzing there is amongst them,” said Leicester, “whatsoever it be.  They begin to deal very strangely within these few days.”  Moreover the industry of the Poleys, Blunts, and Pagets, had turned these unfavourable circumstances to such good account that a mutiny had been near breaking out among the English troops.  “And, before the Lord I speak it,” said the Earl, “I am sure some of these good towns had been gone ere this, but for my money.  As for the States, I warrant you, they see day at a little hole.  God doth know what a forward and a joyful country here was within a month.  God send her Majesty to recover it so again, and to take care of it, on the condition she send me after Sir Francis Drake to the Indies, my service here being no more acceptable.”