lubrious draughts
by travelling too soon, or by plunging anew into the fountains of
bitterness which flowed perennially in the Netherlands.

CHAPTER XV.

Buckhurst sent to the Netherlands--Alarming State of Affairs on his
Arrival--His Efforts to conciliate--Democratic Theories of Wilkes--
Sophistry of the Argument--Dispute between Wilkes and Barneveld--
Religious Tolerance by the States--Their Constitutional Theory--
Deventer's bad Counsels to Leicester--Their pernicious Effect--Real
and supposed Plots against Hohenlo--Mutual Suspicion and Distrust--
Buckhurst seeks to restore good Feeling--The Queen angry and
vindictive--She censures Buckhurst's Course--Leicester's wrath at
Hohenlo's Charges of a Plot by the Earl to murder him--Buckhurst's
eloquent Appeals to the Queen--Her perplexing and contradictory
Orders--Despair of Wilkes--Leicester announces his Return--His
Instructions--Letter to Junius--Barneveld denounces him in the
States.

We return to the Netherlands. If ever proof were afforded of the
influence of individual character on the destiny of nations and of the
world, it certainly was seen in the year 1587. We have lifted the curtain
of the secret council-chamber at Greenwich. We have seen all Elizabeth's
advisers anxious to arouse her from her fatal credulity, from her almost
as fatal parsimony. We have seen Leicester anxious to return, despite all
fancied indignities, Walsingham eager to expedite the enterprise, and the
Queen remaining obdurate, while month after month of precious time was
melting away.

In the Netherlands, meantime, discord and confusion had been increasing
every day; and the first great cause of such a dangerous condition of
affairs was the absence of the governor. To this all parties agreed. The
Leicestrians, the anti-Leicestriana, the Holland party, the Utrecht
party, the English counsellors, the English generals, in private letter,
in solemn act, all warned the Queen against the lamentable effects
resulting from Leicester's inopportune departure and prolonged absence.

On the first outbreak of indignation after the Deventer Affair, Prince
Maurice was placed at the head of the general government, with the
violent Hohenlo as his lieutenant. The greatest exertions were made by
these two nobles and by Barneveld, who guided the whole policy of the
party, to secure as many cities as possible to their cause. Magistrates
and commandants of garris