[637] It is curious that in the previous year, when Essex was going on the Cadiz expedition, Bellièvre, the French minister, expressed an opinion that “his appointment is a suggestion of the Lord Treasurer, in order to divert the Queen from sending aid to his Majesty (Henry IV.), and to get rid of the Earl of Essex on the pretext of this honourable appointment, which would leave him (Burghley) master of the Council.” It is fair to say that the Venetian ambassador who transmits this opinion, expresses his disbelief in it. Venetian State Papers.
[638] That the sagacious Bacon saw and foretold the consequences of Essex’s willingness to absent himself in risky enterprises, is evident from his letters to the Earl in October 1596 (Bacon’s Works, ed. Montagu, vol. 9).
[639] There were about 120 ships, English and Dutch, and a force of some 6000 men, including 1000 English veterans from the Low Countries, led by the gallant Sir Francis Vere.
[640] State Papers, Domestic.
[641] State Papers, Domestic.
[642] State Papers, Domestic.
[643] Ibid.
[644] Ibid.
[645] De Maisse, the French peace envoy to England, wrote, “These people are still dwelling on their imagination of the house of Burgundy, … but it does not please them to have so powerful a neighbour as the King of Spain.”
[646] Full particulars of his embassy will be found in his Journal, in the Archives de la Ministère des affaires étrangères, Paris, partly reproduced in Prévost-Paradol’s “Elizabeth et Henry IV.”