He was certainly sincere, for an excellent reason.

"The Emperor maintains," said Saint Goard, French ambassador at Madrid, "that if peace is not made with the Beggars, the Empire will depart from the house of Austria, and that such is the determination of the electors." On the other hand, if Philip were not weary of the war, at any rate his means for carrying it on were diminishing daily.

Requesens could raise no money in the Netherlands; his secretary wrote to Spain, that the exchequer was at its last gasp, and the cabinet of Madrid was at its wits' end, and almost incapable of raising ways and means.

The peace party was obtaining the upper hand; the fierce policy of Alva regarded with increasing disfavor.

"The people here," wrote Saint Goard from Madrid, "are completely desperate, whatever pains they take to put a good face on the matter.