CHAPTER VIII.
Forlorn Condition of Flanders--Parma's secret Negotiations with the Queen--Grafigni and Bodman--Their Dealings with English Counsellors -- Duplicity of Farnese--Secret Offers of the English Peace-Party-- Letters and Intrigues of De Loo--Drake's Victories and their Effect -- Parma's Perplexity and Anxiety--He is relieved by the News from England--Queen's secret Letters to Parma--His Letters and Instructions to Bodman--Bodman's secret Transactions at Greenwich-- Walsingham detects and exposes the Plot--The Intriguers baffled-- Queen's Letter to Parma and his to the King--Unlucky Results of the Peace--Intrigues--Unhandsome Treatment of Leicester--Indignation of the Earl and Walsingham--Secret Letter of Parma to Philip--Invasion of England recommended--Details of the Project.
Alexander Farnese and his heroic little army had been left by their sovereign in as destitute a condition as that in which Lord Leicester and his unfortunate "paddy persons" had found themselves since their arrival in the Netherlands.

These mortal men were but the weapons to be used and broken in the hands of the two great sovereigns, already pitted against each other in mortal combat.

That the distant invisible potentate, the work of whose life was to do his best to destroy all European nationality, all civil and religious freedom, should be careless of the instruments by which his purpose was to be effected, was but natural.

It is painful to reflect that the great champion of liberty and of Protestantism was almost equally indifferent to the welfare of the human creatures enlisted in her cause.

Spaniards and Italians, English and Irish, went half naked and half starving through the whole inclement winter, and perished of pestilence in droves, after confronting the less formidable dangers of battlefield and leaguer.