He was much ashamed, in truth, to have been wheedled into passing the whole fine season in idleness.  He had been sacrificing himself for her sacred Majesty, and to, serve her best interests; and now he found himself the object of her mirth.  Those who ought to be well informed had assured him that the Queen was only waiting to see how the King of Navarre was getting on with the auxiliary force just, going to him from Germany, that she had no intention whatever to make peace, and that, before long, he might expect all these German mercenaries upon his shoulders in the Netherlands.  Nevertheless he was prepared to receive them with 40,000 good infantry, a splendid cavalry force, and plenty of money.’

All this and more did the credulous Andrew greedily devour; and he lost no time in communicating the important intelligence to her Majesty and the Lord-Treasurer.  He implored her, he said, upon his bare knees, prostrate on the ground, and from the most profound and veritable centre of his heart and with all his soul and all his strength, to believe in the truth of the matters thus confided to him.  He would pledge his immortal soul, which was of more value to him—­as he correctly observed —­than even the crown of Spain, that the King, the Duke, and his counsellors, were most sincerely desirous of peace, and actuated by the most loving and benevolent motives.  Alexander Farnese was “the antidote to the Duke of Alva,” kindly sent by heaven, ’ut contraria contrariis curenter,’ and if the entire security of the sacred Queen were not now obtained, together with a perfect reintegration of love between her Majesty and the King of Spain, and with the assured tranquillity and perpetual prosperity of the Netherlands, it would be the fault of England; not of Spain.

And no doubt the merchant believed all that was told him, and—­what was worse—­that he fully impressed his own convictions upon her Majesty and Lord Burghley, to say nothing of the comptroller, who, poor man, had great facility in believing anything that came from the court of the most Catholic King:  yet it is painful to reflect, that in all these communications of Alexander and his agents, there was not one single word of truth.—­It was all false from beginning to end, as to the countermanding of the troops,—­as to the pacific intentions of the King and Duke, and as to the proposed campaign in Friesland, in case of rupture; and all the rest.  But this will be conclusively proved a little later.

Meantime the conference had been most amicable and satisfactory.  And when business was over, Champagny—­not a whit the worse for the severe jilting which he had so recently sustained from the widow De Bours, now Mrs. Aristotle Patton—­invited De Loo and Secretary Cosimo to supper.  And the three made a night of it, sitting up late, and draining such huge bumpers to the health of the Queen of England, that—­as the excellent Andrew subsequently informed Lord Burghley—­his head ached most bravely next morning.