Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/186

 166 &EIGN OF EUZABETtf. [ctt. 58. But the bolder the front which she maintained, the more eager was Alva for peace with her, the more he pressed his master not to hesitate in compliance. His army had sat down before Haarlem after the sack of Mechlin. He found the town defended with a skill which the ablest engineers and the best trained troops in the world could not have exceeded. He was losing his men by thousands in a winter siege, and he said that if England interposed the rebellion would never be suppressed. 1 Philip's difficulties were dreadful ; to come to terms at all with a Power which had treated him with such insolence was more than humiliating. To consent to limit the power of the Inquisition, and to expel from his dominions those English friends who had been exiled for their faithfulness to the Church, was more than he could bear. His condition was pitiable. When he learnt that the English Catholic's were now looking to France rather than to him to be their champion, he covered the margins of his despatches with interjections and lamentations ; and the refugees plied him with com- plaints and reproaches, which cut the deeper because they were moderately urged. One of the party at Louvain, whose name does not appear, wrote a remark- able letter to the Duchess of Feria, which was intended for Philip's eyes. ' Although/ so it ran, ' your Grace's words to us are always consolatory, yet we are dispirited by the long 1 Alva to Philip, January 1 7 : Correspondence, vol. ii,