LETTER XLVII.
Positive news has come from Brabant that Brussels[227] has been compelled by famine to surrender to Parma, and Antwerp is hard pressed, being debarred from all use of the Scheldt by the completion of the bridge. These tidings in all probability will rouse up the French Court, and compel them to come to some decision with regard to the Netherlanders, for, unless these last receive some support, their defence must collapse. Indeed, the ambassadors of the rebel States assume an air of despondency, being disappointed at the King’s handing over the responsibility to his mother, instead of declaring war on his own account.
March 7, 1585.