Most earnestly and anxiously did the King deprecate any, thought of deferring the expedition to another year.

If delayed, the obstacles of the following summer--a peace in France, a peace between the Turk and Persia, and other contingencies--would cause the whole project to fail, and Philip declared, with much iteration, that money; reputation, honour, his own character and that of Farnese, and God's service, were all at stake.

He was impatient at suggestions of difficulties occasionally, ventured by the Duke, who was reminded that he had been appointed chief of the great enterprise by the spontaneous choice of his master, and that all his plans had been minutely followed.

"You are the author of the whole scheme," said Philip, "and if it, is all to vanish into space, what kind of a figure shall we cut the coming year ?" Again and again he referred to the immense sum collected--such as never before had been seen since the world was made--4,800,000 ducats with 2,000,000 in reserve, of which he was authorized to draw for 500,000 in advance, to say nothing of the Pope's million.
But Alexander, while straining every nerve to obey his master's wishes about the invasion, and to blind the English by the fictitious negotiations, was not so sanguine as his sovereign.

In truth, there was something puerile in the eagerness which Philip manifested.