For, meantime, the governor-general had at last been sent back by his sovereign to the post which he had so long abandoned.  Leaving Leicester House on the 4th July (N.  S.), he had come on board the fleet two days afterwards at Margate.  He was bringing with him to the Netherlands three thousand fresh infantry, and thirty thousand pounds, of which sum fifteen thousand pounds had been at last wrung from Elizabeth as an extra loan, in place of the sixty thousand pounds which the States had requested.  As he sailed past Ostend and towards Flushing, the Earl was witness to the constant cannonading between the besieged city and the camp of Farnese, and saw that the work could hardly be more serious; for in one short day more shots were fired than had ever been known before in a single day in all Parma’s experience.

Arriving at Flushing, the governor-general was well received by the inhabitants; but the mischief, which had been set a-foot six months before, had done its work.  The political intrigues, disputes, and the conflicting party-organizations, have already been set in great detail before the reader, in order that their effect might now be thoroughly understood without—­explanation.  The governor-general came to Flushing at a most critical moment.  The fate of all the Spanish Netherlands, of Sluys, and with it the whole of Philip and Parma’s great project, were, in Farnese’s own language, hanging by a thread.

It would have been possible—­had the transactions of the past six months, so far as regarded Holland and England, been the reverse of what they had been—­to save the city; and, by a cordial and united effort, for the two countries to deal the Spanish power such a blow, that summer, as would have paralyzed it for a long time to come, and have placed both commonwealths in comparative security.

Instead of all this, general distrust and mutual jealousy prevailed.  Leicester had, previously to his departure from England, summoned the States to meet him at Dort upon his arrival.  Not a soul appeared.  Such of the state-councillors as were his creatures came to him, and Count Maurice made a visit of ceremony.  Discussions about a plan for relieving the siege became mere scenes of bickering and confusion.  The officers within Sluys were desirous that a fleet should force its way into the harbour, while, at the same time, the English army, strengthened by the contingent which Leicester had demanded from the States, should advance against the Duke of Parma by land.  It was, in truth, the only way to succour the place.  The scheme was quite practicable.  Leicester recommended it, the Hollanders seemed to favour it, Commandant Groenevelt and Roger Williams urged it.