which he reduced to great
difficulties. But the league, unable of themselves to take the field
against him, had again recourse to the duke of Parma, who received
orders to march to their relief. He executed this enterprise with his
usual abilities and success; and for the present frustrated all the
projects of Henry and Elizabeth. This princess, who kept still in view
the interests of her own kingdom in all her foreign transactions, was
impatient under these disappointments, blamed Henry for his negligence
in the execution of treaties, and complained that the English forces
were thrust foremost in every hazardous enterprise.[*] It is
probable, however, that their own ardent courage, and their desire of
distinguishing themselves in so celebrated a theatre of war, were the
causes why they so often enjoyed this perilous honor.

Notwithstanding the indifferent success of former enterprises, the queen
was sensible how necessary it was to support Henry against the league
and the Spaniards; and she formed a new treaty with him, in which
they agreed never to make peace with Philip but by common consent;
she promised to send him a new supply of four thousand men; and he
stipulated to repay her charges in a twelvemonth, to employ these
forces, joined to a body of French troops, in an expedition against
Brittany, and to consign into her hands a seaport town of that province,
for a retreat to the English.[**] Henry knew the impossibility of
executing some of these articles, and the imprudence of fulfilling
others; but finding them rigidly insisted on by Elizabeth, he accepted
of her succors, and trusted that he might easily, on some pretence, be
able to excuse his failure in executing his part of the treaty. This
campaign was the least successful of all those which he had yet carried
on against the league.

During these military operations in France, Elizabeth employed her
naval power against Philip, and endeavored to intercept his West Indian
treasures, the source of that greatness which rendered him so formidable
to all his neighbors. She sent a squadron of seven ships, under the
command of Lord Thomas Howard, for this service; but the king of Spain,
informed of her purpose, fitted out a great force of fifty-five sail,
and despatched them to escort the Indian fleet. They fell in with
the English squadron; and, by the courageous obstinacy of Sir Richard
Greenville, the vice-admiral, who refused to make his escape by flight,
the