pain and Portugal, and, despite assurances to the
contrary, there was a growing belief that England was to be invaded. To
destroy those ships before the monarch's face, would be, indeed, to
"singe his beard." But whose arm was daring enough for such a stroke?
Whose but that of the Devonshire skipper who had already accomplished so
much?

And so Sir Francis, "a man true to his word, merciful to those under him,
and hating nothing so much as idleness," had come to the Netherlands to
talk over his project with the States-General, and with the Dutch
merchants and sea-captains. His visit was not unfruitful. As a body the
assembly did nothing; but they recommended that in every maritime city of
Holland and Zeeland one or two ships should be got ready, to participate
in all the future enterprises of Sir Francis and his comrades.

The martial spirit of volunteer sailors, and the keen instinct of
mercantile speculation, were relied upon--exactly as in England--to
furnish men, ships, and money, for these daring and profitable
adventures. The foundation of a still more intimate connection between
England and Holland was laid, and thenceforth Dutchmen and Englishmen
fought side by side, on land and sea, wherever a blow was to be struck in
the cause of human freedom against despotic Spain.

The famous Babington conspiracy, discovered by Walsingham's "travail and
cost," had come to convince the Queen and her counsellors--if further
proof were not superfluous--that her throne and life were both
incompatible with Philip's deep designs, and that to keep that monarch
out of the Netherlands, was as vital to her as to keep him out of
England. "She is forced by this discovery to countenance the cause by all
outward means she may," said Walsingham, "for it appeareth unto her most
plain, that unless she had entered into the action, she had been utterly
undone, and that if she do not prosecute the same she cannot continue."
The Secretary had sent Leicester information at an early day of the great
secret, begging his friend to "make the letter a heretic after he had
read the same," and expressing the opinion that "the matter, if well
handled, would break the neck of all dangerous practices during her
Majesty's reign."

The tragedy of Mary Stuart--a sad but inevitable portion of the vast
drama in which the emancipation of England and Holland, and, through
them, of half Christendom, was accomplished--approached its catastrophe;
and Leicester