But if there was a certain degree of disingenuousness on the part of Elizabeth towards the States, her attitude towards Parma was one of perfect sincerity.  A perusal of the secret correspondence leaves no doubt whatever on that point.  She was seriously and fervently desirous of peace with Spain.  On the part of Farnese and his master, there was the most unscrupulous mendacity, while the confiding simplicity and truthfulness of the Queen in these negotiations was almost pathetic.  Especially she declared her trust in the loyal and upright character of Parma, in which she was sure of never being disappointed.  It is only doing justice to Alexander to say that he was as much deceived by her frankness as she by his falsehood.  It never entered his head that a royal personage and the trusted counsellors of a great kingdom could be telling the truth in a secret international transaction, and he justified the industry with which his master and himself piled fiction upon fiction, by their utter disbelief in every word which came to them from England.

The private negotiations had been commenced, or rather had been renewed, very early in February of this year.  During the whole critical period which preceded and followed the execution of Mary, in the course of which the language of Elizabeth towards the States had been so shrewish, there had been the gentlest diplomatic cooing between Farnese and herself.  It was—­Dear Cousin, you know how truly I confide in your sincerity, how anxious I am that this most desirable peace should be arranged; and it was—­Sacred Majesty, you know how much joy I feel in your desire for the repose of the world, and for a solid peace between your Highness and the King my master; how much I delight in concord—­how incapable I am by ambiguous words of spinning out these transactions, or of deceiving your Majesty, and what a hatred I feel for steel, fire, and blood.’

Four or five months rolled on, during which Leicester had been wasting time in England, Farnese wasting none before Sluys, and the States doing their best to counteract the schemes both of their enemy and of their ally.  De Loo made a visit, in July, to the camp of the Duke of Parma, and received the warmest assurances of his pacific dispositions.  “I am much pained,” said Alexander, “with this procrastination.  I am so full of sincerity myself, that it seems to me a very strange matter, this hostile descent by Drake upon the coasts of Spain.  The result of such courses will be, that the King will end by being exasperated, and I shall be touched in my honour—­so great is the hopes I have held out of being able to secure a peace.  I have ever been and I still am most anxious for concord, from the affection I bear to her sacred Majesty.  I have been obliged, much against my will, to take the field again.  I could wish now that our negotiations might terminate before the arrival of my fresh troops, namely, 9000 Spaniards and 9000 Italians, which, with