he Netherlands. He could not go there himself, so
he looked about for a suitable instrument for his purpose. The Duke of
Alva was the man chosen. He was appointed Viceroy, with full authority
to carry out the pious design. Heresy must cease to exist in the
Netherlands. The arrival of Alva, clothed with such despotic powers,
and the atrocities committed by him, caused the greatest indignation
in the Netherlands. The Prince of Orange, aided by the Counts Egmont
and Horn, organized a party to resist him, and a revolution was
commenced which lasted for forty years, affording one of the blackest
chapters in the history of Europe. The name of Alva stands at the head
of the list of men who have wrought desolation and suffering in the
name of religion. The other European states protested, and Elizabeth,
in hot indignation, gave aid to the persecuted states.

Philip had contracted a marriage, after Mary's death, with the
daughter of that terrible woman Catherine de Medici, widow of Henry
II. of France, and there is much reason to believe that it was this
Duke of Alva who planned the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. There were
sinister conferences between Catherine, Philip, and Alva, and little
doubt exists that the hideous tragedy which occurred in Paris on the
night of August 24, 1572, was arranged in Madrid, and had its first
inception in the cruel breast of Alva.

There had not been much love existing before between Philip and
Elizabeth, who it is said had refused the hand of her Spanish
brother-in-law. But after her interference in the Netherlands, and
when her ships were intercepting and waylaying Spanish ships returning
with treasure from the West, and when at last the one was the accepted
champion of the Protestant, and the other of the Catholic cause, they
became avowed enemies. Philip resolved to prepare a mighty armament
for the invasion of England.

In 1587 Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to reconnoiter and find out
what Philip was doing. He appeared with twenty-five vessels before
Cadiz. Having learned all he wanted, and burned a fleet of merchant
vessels, he returned to his Queen.

In May, 1588, a fleet of one hundred and thirty ships, some "the
largest that ever plowed the deep," sailed from Lisbon for the English
coast. We may form some idea to-day of what must have been the feeling
in England when this Armada, unparalleled in size, appeared in the
English Channel! If Sir Francis Drake's ships were fewer and smal