t should not be delayed, that I
cannot refrain from urging it upon you as much as I can. I should do it
even more amply; if this hand would allow me, which has been crippled
with gout these several days, and my feet as well, and although it is
unattended with pain, yet it is an impediment to writing."

Struggling thus against his own difficulties, and triumphantly,
accomplishing a whole paragraph with disabled hand, it was natural that
the King should expect Alexander, then deep in the siege of Sluy's, to
vanquish all his obstacles as successfully; and to effect the conquest of
England so soon as the harvests of that kingdom should be garnered.

Sluy's was surrendered at last, and the great enterprise seemed opening
from hour to hour. During the months of autumn; upon the very days when
those loving messages, mixed with gentle reproaches, were sent by
Alexander to Elizabeth, and almost at the self-same hours in which honest
Andrew de Loo was getting such head-aches by drinking the Queen's health
with Cosimo, and Champagny, the Duke and Philip were interchanging
detailed information as to the progress of the invasion. The King
calculated that by the middle of September Alexander would have 30,000
men in the Netherlands ready for embarcation.--Marquis Santa Cruz was
announced as nearly ready to, sail for the English channel with 22,000
more, among whom were to be 16,000 seasoned Spanish infantry. The Marquis
was then to extend the hand to Parma, and protect that passage to England
which the Duke was at once to effect. The danger might be great for so
large a fleet to navigate the seas at so late a season of the year; but
Philip was sure that God, whose cause it was, would be pleased to give
good weather. The Duke was to send, with infinite precautions of secrecy,
information which the Marquis would expect off Ushant, and be quite ready
to act so soon as Santa Cruz should arrive. Most earnestly and anxiously
did the King deprecate any, thought of deferring the expedition to
another year. If delayed, the obstacles of the following summer--a peace
in France, a peace between the Turk and Persia, and other
contingencies--would cause the whole project to fail, and Philip
declared, with much iteration, that money; reputation, honour, his own
character and that of Farnese, and God's service, were all at stake. He
was impatient at suggestions of difficulties occasionally, ventured by
the Duke, who was reminded that he had been app