He complained bitterly of the disgrace that was heaped upon him, both publicly and privately, and of the evil consequences which were sure to follow from the course pursued.  “Never was man so villanously handled by letters out of England as I have been,” said he, “not only advertising her Majesty’s great dislike with me before this my coming over, but that I was an odious man in England, and so long as I tarried here that no help was to be looked for, that her Majesty would send no more men or money, and that I was used here but for a time till a peace were concluded between her Majesty and the Prince of Parma.  What the continuance of a man’s discredit thus will turn out is to be thought of, for better I were a thousand times displaced than that her Majesty’s great advantage of so notable Provinces should be hindered.”

As to the peace-negotiations—­which, however cunningly managed, could not remain entirely concealed—­the Earl declared them to be as idle as they were disingenuous.  “I will boldly pronounce that all the peace you can make in the world, leaving these countries,” said he to Burghley, “will never prove other than a fair spring for a few days, to be all over blasted with a hard storm after.”  Two days later her Majesty’s comforting letters arrived, and the Earl began to raise his drooping head.  Heneage, too, was much relieved, but he was, at the same time, not a little perplexed.  It was not so easy to undo all the mischief created by the Queen’s petulance.  The “scorpion’s sting”—­as her Majesty expressed herself—­might be balsamed, but the poison had spread far beyond the original wound.

“The letters just brought in,” wrote Heneage to Burghley, “have well relieved a most noble and sufficient servant, but I fear they will not restore the much-repaired wrecks of these far-decayed noble countries into the same state I found them in.  A loose, disordered, and unknit state needs no shaking, but propping.  A subtle and fearful kind of people—­should not be made more distrustful, but assured.”  He then expressed annoyance at the fault already found with him, and surely if ever man had cause to complain of reproof administered him, in quick succession; for not obeying contradictory directions following upon each other as quickly, that man was Sir Thomas Heneage.  He had been, as he thought, over cautious in administering the rebuke to the Earl’s arrogance, which he had been expressly sent over to administer but scarcely had he accomplished his task, with as much delicacy as he could devise, when he found himself censured;—­not for dilatoriness, but for haste.  “Fault I perceive,” said he to Burghley, “is found in me, not by your Lordship, but by some other, that I did not stay proceeding if I found the public cause might take hurt.  It is true I had good warrant for the manner, the, place, and the persons, but, for the matter none, for done it must be.  Her Majesty’s offence must be declared.  Yet if I did not all I possibly could to uphold the cause, and to keep the tottering cause upon the wheels, I deserve no thanks, but reproof.”