inistration of those republican magistrates whom she never failed to
respect, even when most inclined to quarrel with them. "Never before was
it written or heard of," said the queen, "that so great an extent of
country could be defended with so few troops, that an invasion of so
superior a hostile force could be prevented, especially as it appeared
that all the streams and rivers were frozen." This, she added, was owing
to the wise and far-seeing counsels of the States-General, and to the
faithful diligence of their military commander, who now, as she declared,
deserved the title of the first captain of all Christendom.

A period of languor and exhaustion succeeded. The armies of the States
had dwindled to an effective force of scarcely four or five thousand men,
while the new levies came in but slowly. The taxation, on the other hand,
was very severe. The quotas for the provinces had risen to the amount of
five million eight hundred thousand florins for the year 1599, against an
income of four millions six hundred thousand, and this deficit went on
increasing, notwithstanding a new tax of one-half per cent. on the
capital of all estates above three thousand florins in value, and another
of two and a half per cent. on all sales of real property. The finances
of the obedient provinces were in a still worse condition, and during the
absence of the cardinal-archduke an almost universal mutiny, occasioned
by the inability of the exchequer to provide payment for the troops,
established itself throughout Flanders and Brabant. There was much
recrimination on the subject of the invasion of the Rhenish duchies, and
a war of pamphlets and manifestos between the archduke's Government and
the States-General succeeded to those active military operations by which
so much misery had been inflicted on the unfortunate inhabitants of that
border land. There was a slight attempt on the part of the Princes of
Brunswick, Hesse, and Brandenburg to counteract and to punish the
hostilities of the Spanish troops committed upon German soil. An
army--very slowly organized, against the wishes of the emperor, the
bishops, and the Catholic party--took the field, and made a feeble
demonstration upon Rheinberg and upon Rees entirely without result and
then disbanded itself ingloriously.

Meantime the admiral had withdrawn from German territory, and was amusing
himself with a variety of blows aimed at vital points of the republic. An
excursion into the