Lord Cobham and Sir Francis Walsingham were then in the Netherlands, having been sent by Elizabeth for the purpose of effecting a pacification of the estates with the Governor, if possible.

They had also explained--so far as an explanation was possible--the assistance which the English government had rendered to the rebels, upon the ground that the French invasion could be prevented in no other way.

This somewhat lame apology had been passed over in silence rather than accepted by Don John.

In the same interview the envoys made an equally unsuccessful effort to induce the acceptance by the Governor of the terms offered by the states.

A further proposition, on their part, for an "Interim," upon the plan attempted by Charles the Fifth in Germany, previously to the Peace of Passau, met with no more favor than it merited, for certainly that name--which became so odious in Germany that cats and dogs were called "Interim" by the common people, in derision--was hardly a potent word to conjure with, at that moment, in the Netherlands.