n so short a period as to make his presence in Hainault at that
moment impossible. Forced, at last, to admit the truth of the disastrous
news, he dashed his hat upon the ground in a fury, uttering imprecations
upon the Queen Dowager of France, to whose perfidious intrigues he
ascribed the success of the enterprise, and pledging himself to send her
Spanish thistles, enough in return for the Florentine lilies which she
had thus bestowed upon him.

In the midst of the perplexities thus thickening around him, the Duke
preserved his courage, if not his temper. Blinded, for a brief season, by
the rapid attacks made upon him, he had been uncertain whither to direct
his vengeance. This last blow in so vital a quarter determined him at
once. He forthwith despatched Don Frederic to undertake the siege of
Mons, and earnestly set about raising large reinforcements to his army.
Don Frederic took possession, without much opposition, of the Bethlehem
cloister in the immediate vicinity of the city, and with four thousand
troops began the investment in due form.

Alva had, for a long time, been most impatient to retire from the
provinces. Even he was capable of human emotions. Through the sevenfold
panoply of his pride he had been pierced by the sharpness of a nation's
curse. He was wearied with the unceasing execrations which assailed his
ears. "The hatred which the people bear me," said he, in a letter to
Philip, "because of the chastisement which it has been necessary for me
to inflict, although with all the moderation in the world, make all my
efforts vain. A successor will meet more sympathy and prove more useful."
On the 10th June, the Duke of Medina Coeli; with a fleet of more than
forty sail, arrived off Blankenburg, intending to enter the Scheld.
Julian Romero, with two thousand Spaniards, was also on board the fleet.
Nothing, of course, was known to the new comers of the altered condition
of affairs in the Netherlands, nor of the unwelcome reception which they
were like to meet in Flushing. A few of the lighter craft having been
taken by the patriot cruisers, the alarm was spread through all the
fleet. Medina Coeli, with a few transports, was enabled to effect his
escape to Sluys, whence he hastened to Brussels in a much less
ceremonious manner than he had originally contemplated. Twelve Biscayan
ships stood out to sea, descried a large Lisbon fleet, by a singular
coincidence, suddenly heaving in sight, changed their course ag