Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/367

 1 575.] THE SPANISH TREATY. 347 the refugees who were ordered to leave Flanders, was a person named Edward Woodshawe, who took the op- portunity of writing to Lord Burghley to ask for par- don and employment. Woodshawe was singularly open in his account of himself. He had been 25 years in the Low Gauntries; at* first in the household of Count Egmont, l with whom he had lived in all luxury/ On Egmont's arrest, he went back to England, ' but neither his uncle Leveson, of Wolverhampton, his cousin Arden, of Park Hall, in Warwickshire, nor any of his other relations would help him with two angels/ ' He had been brought up like a gentleman, seldom knowing what it was to lack or want.' ' And therefore,' he said, ' with other companions who were in straits as well as myself, I was forced to give the onset, and break up a house in Warwickshire, not far from Wakefield/ With the 2ol. which came to his share from this transaction, he went again to Flanders, and was em- ployed by Alva, ' Whom he took God to witness he loved as the devil in hell. 7 He prayed Burghley to overlook his offences, and to give him an opportunity of retrieving his character. * Having long followed the wars/ he said, ' and experimented this wavering world, what he took in hand he would do, so that no man in the world should know of his affairs. Her Majesty, Lord Burghley, and himself, could understand each other. Their secrets need go no further/ and he ' protested before God, and swore by his holy name on the damnation of his soul/ that he would be true. He was intimate with Requescens, intimate with Lord