once more to be closing round England. So threatening
was the outlook that nothing but the domestic troubles
of the chief parties to the league appeared to stand in the
way of a combined attack upon the heretic queen. The
points from which there was present danger of assault were
France and the Spanish Netherlands. But in France
the Huguenots, with Rochelle for a base, were still holding
the Government at bay and paralysing its action abroad.
In the Netherlands, Alva, the Spanish governor, was
equally afraid to move. The 'Beggars,' as his rebels
called themselves, were in command of the sea; his army
and treasury were exhausted by the effort of reducing his
province to obedience, and it was all he could do to hold
his own. So long as these conditions held, everyone
felt that Elizabeth could rest in comparative security.
So clear was the situation that Cecil himself had been
converted to a policy of supporting the Protestants abroad,
and, impatient of his mistress's finessing, was pushing her
forward towards an open hegemony of the new religion.
For the Huguenots something was already being done.
Under pretence of violence and extortion suffered at
Bordeaux, the wine-fleet, convoyed by a squadron of four
of the queen's ships under Sir William Wynter, was going
to Rochelle with secret supplies for the rebels. Nothing
but an opportunity was wanted for a similar service to be
rendered to the Netherlands, and it was not long in
coming.

About the end of November, as Wynter was leaving
the Thames, some treasure ships bound from Spain to
Antwerp were driven by Huguenot privateers to seek
sanctuary in, Southampton, Plymouth, and Falmouth. The
money they carried was part of the proceeds of a loan
which Philip had negotiated in Italy for the payment of
Alva's troops, and Bernardino Spinola, the great Italian

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