He had but eight or nine thousand men, and no money to pay even this little force.

The soldiers were perishing daily, and nearly all the survivors were described by their chief, as sick or maimed.

The famine in the obedient Provinces was universal, the whole population was desperate with hunger; and the merchants, frightened by Drake's successes, and appalled by the ruin all around them, drew their purse-strings inexorably.

"I know not to what saint to devote myself," said Alexander.

He had been compelled, by the movement before Grave, to withdraw Haultepenne from the projected enterprise against Neusz, and he was quite aware of the cheerful view which Leicester was inclined to take of their relative positions.