[Sidenote: The popular passion.]

The work of the Jesuits, the withdrawal of the Catholics from the
churches, the panic of the Protestants, were signs that the control of
events was passing from the hands of statesmen and diplomatists, and
that the long period of suspense which Elizabeth's policy had won was
ending in the clash of national and political passions. The rising
fanaticism of the Catholic world was breaking down the caution and
hesitation of Philip; while England was setting aside the balanced
neutrality of her Queen and pushing boldly forward to a contest which it
felt to be inevitable. The public opinion, to which Elizabeth was so
sensitive, took every day a bolder and more decided tone. Her cold
indifference to the heroic struggle in Flanders was more than
compensated by the enthusiasm it roused among the nation at large. The
earlier Flemish refugees found a home in the Cinque Ports. The exiled
merchants of Antwerp were welcomed by the merchants of London. While
Elizabeth dribbled out her secret aid to the Prince of Orange, the
London traders sent him half-a-million from their own purses, a sum
equal to a year's revenue of the Crown. Volunteers stole across the
Channel in increasing numbers to the aid of the Dutch, till the five
hundred Englishmen who fought in the beginning of the struggle rose to a
brigade of five thousand, whose bravery turned one of the most critical
battles of the war. Dutch privateers found shelter in English ports, and
English vessels hoisted the flag of the States for a dash at the Spanish
traders. Protestant fervour rose steadily among Englishmen as "the best
captains and soldiers" returned from the campaigns in the Low Countries
to tell of Alva's atrocities, or as privateers brought back tales of
English seamen who had been seized in Spain and the New World, to linger
amidst the tortures of the Inquisition, or to die in its fires. In the
presence of this steady drift of popular passion the diplomacy of
Elizabeth became of little moment. If the Queen was resolute for peace,
England was resolute for war. A new daring had arisen since the
beginning of her reign, when Cecil and Elizabeth stood alone in their
belief in England's strength, and when the diplomatists of Europe
regarded her obstinate defiance of Philip's counsels as "madness." The
whole English people had caught the self-confidence and daring of their
Queen.

[Sidenote: Spain.]

It was the instinct of liberty as