Any one who ruled in the provinces was obliged to do exactly what they ordered him to do.

Such rule was not to the taste of Don John.

Without any comparison, a woman would answer the purpose better than any man, and Escovedo accordingly suggested the Empress Dowager, or Madame de Parma, or even Madame de Lorraine.

He further recommended that the Spanish troops, thus forced to leave the Netherlands by land, should be employed against the heretics in France.

This would be a salve for the disgrace of removing them.