I charge you to be secret, to give the matter your deepest attention, and to let me have your opinions at once." Philip then added a postscript, in his own hand, concerning the importance of acquiring a sea-port in Holland, as a basis of operations against England.

"Without a port," he said, "we can do nothing whatever." A few weeks later, the Grand Commander of Castile, by Philip's orders, and upon subsequent information received from the Prince of Parma, drew up an elaborate scheme for the invasion of England, and for the government of that country afterwards; a program according to which the King was to shape his course for a long time to come.

The plot was an excellent plot.

Nothing could be more artistic, more satisfactory to the prudent monarch; but time was to show whether there might not be some difficulty in the way of its satisfactory development.
"The enterprise," said the Commander, "ought certainly to be undertaken as serving the cause of the Lord.

From the Pope we must endeavour to extract a promise of the largest aid we can get for the time when the enterprise can be undertaken.