Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/357

 I574-] THE SPANISH TREATY. 337 privateers, not being particular about creeds, plundered Dutch merchantmen. 1 Vessels from Holland were robbed even at the quay at Sandwich, and no redress could be had. The interference of England on behalf of the States was made more impossible than ever. Nor was this the worst. In the spring of 1574 the Prince of Orange and his two brothers, Count Louis and Count Henry, collected an army of Huguenots in France, with the connivance of Catherine de Medici, crossed the Meuse, and were making their way towards Zealand, when they were intercepted at Mook Heath and forced into an engagement by Don Sancho d'Avila. The sea was the friend of the Hollanders,, the land was their enemies'. Their entire force was destroyed, and Louis and Henry were killed. 2 Requescens, snatching the opportunity, published an amnesty, from which fourteen names only were ex- cepted. He invited the provinces to reflect upon the favourable disposition of his sovereign, and to take ad- vantage of offers which might not be within their reach 1 Here for instance is one case out of eleven Deported September 7, 1573 : ' CorneHus Williamson, of Dort, sailing out of Yarmouth, was boarded and utterly spoiled. The mariners of the said ship were most cruelly handled ; and being tied with ropes were cast into the sea and wits, they stripped him all naked and cast him eight times tied with a rope and with stones at his legs 18 or 20 feet deep in the sea till they knew where his money was, and so took his money and of his mariners with all their gear, and the anchors, cables, and victuals of the said ship, greatly tormented for to know whe- j and left the master wholly naked.' ther they had money. They hanged up the said Cornelius with a rope MSS. Flanders. 2 Battle of Mook Heath. April about his neck until he was almost I 14, 1574. dead, and when he was come to his ! VOL. x. 22