Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/116

 9 6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 57. part} 7 " was losing its national character and passing into vulgar conspiracy, the conduct of it fell more and more to the brood of English clergy at Louvain. They were men whose all in all in earth or heaven was the faith of the Church ; and one among them especially, Nicholas Sanders, once an Oxford student, who had kindled his piety at the flames which burnt Cranmer, was sent for to Rome, to Pope Pius, to consult on the best means of setting the rebellion on its feet again. 1 In England meanwhile there remained to represent Spain, when Don Guerau was gone, the two Commis- sioners, Antonio de Guaras and M. Schwegenhem, who had been employed by Alva to compose the commercial quarrel. With the ambassadors on both sides dismissed, and the privateers which infested the Channel, Elizabeth and Philip were at war in all but the name ; but the conspiracy having come to nothing, both they and Alva had their reasons for wishing to avoid an open rupture. Alva was beginning his great scheme of taxation, by which the Netherlands were to pay the cost of their con- quest. His ability in the field was rivalled by his incapacity as an administrator, and the manufacturers and artisans of Bruges and Ghent and Antwerp, who had learnt to endure the Inquisition, were threatening to resist in arms the confiscation of their property. The Prince of Orange was watching his opportunity to turn certa spe insistatur veteri ex Turca novos 3hristianos effici posse.' Sir F. Eng'.efield to : MSS. Si- mancas. 1 N. Sanders to the Earl of Northumberland, January 23 : MSS. Flanders.