ester, and suspicious of the English, broke out into
loud complaints against the improvidence, if not the treachery, of his
administration. Soon after, he himself arrived in the Low Countries;
but his conduct was nowise calculated to give them satisfaction, or to
remove the suspicions which they had entertained against him. The prince
of Parma having besieged Sluys, Leicester attempted to relieve the
place, first by sea, then by land; but failed in both enterprises; and
as he ascribed his bad success to the ill behavior of the Hollanders,
they were equally free in reflections upon his conduct. The breach
between them became wider every day: they slighted his authority,
opposed his measures, and neglected his counsels; while he endeavored by
an imperious behavior, and by violence, to recover that influence which
he had lost by his imprudent and ill-concerted measures. He was even
suspected by the Dutch of a design to usurp upon their liberties; and
the jealousy entertained against him began to extend towards the queen
herself. That princess had made some advances towards a peace with
Spain: a congress had been opened at Bourbourg, a village near
Graveline: and though the two courts, especially that of Spain, had no
other intention than to amuse each of them its enemy by negotiation, and
mutually relax the preparations for defence or attack, the Dutch, who
were determined on no terms to return under the Spanish yoke, became
apprehensive lest their liberty should be sacrificed to the political
interests of England.[*] But the queen, who knew the importance of her
alliance with the states during the present conjuncture, was resolved
to give them entire satisfaction, by recalling Leicester, and commanding
him to resign his government. Maurice son of the late prince of Orange,
a youth of twenty years of age, was elected by the states governor in
his place; and Peregrine Lord Willoughby was appointed by the queen
commander of the English forces. The measures of these two generals were
much embarrassed by the malignity of Leicester, who had left a faction
behind him, and who still attempted, by means of his emissaries, to
disturb all the operations of the states. As soon as Elizabeth received
intelligence of these disorders, she took care to redress them; and she
obliged all the partisans of England to fall into unanimity with
Prince Maurice.[**] But though her good sense so far prevailed over her
partiality to Leicester, she nev