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 merchants, the Spanish ambassador hoped that they would join him in his protest and force the Queen to reimburse the treasure she had so unceremoniously retained for her own purposes. The Duke of Alva acted on the instant by arresting every English resident in the Low Countries, seizing such English ships as were in its ports, sequestering their cargoes, and imprisoning their crews; while couriers rode post haste across France to Spain, so that Philip might extend the embargo to every port within his dominions before the English had time to depart.

Elizabeth had hoped that her frivolous excuse for seizing the treasure would be accepted: at least she had no idea that such prompt reprisals would have been made; but, though the shock was great, she had taken a step from which, after the reprisals by Spain, she felt she could not at the time retreat. Forthwith a retaliating edict of the most stringent character appeared, ordering the immediate imprisonment of every Spaniard and Netherlander found in England, and the arrest of every vessel in her ports or in the Channel owned by any of Philip's subjects. That very night the mayor and aldermen of the city of London went round to the houses of all the Spanish merchants, sealed up their warehouses, and carried them off from their beds to the Fleet prison. Even without Philip's treasure the value of the Spanish and Flemish goods thus detained far exceeded the confiscation of Alva. But the suppression of trade which these acts created caused great discontent in London, and there were many persons in England, especially among the old