The Catholics were to be handsomely rewarded and all the inhabitants were to be treated with so much indulgence that, instead of abhorring Parma and his soldiers, they would conceive a strong affection for them all, as the source of so many benefits.

Again the Duke was warmly commended for the skill with which he had handled the peace negotiation.

It was quite right to appoint commissioners, but it was never for an instant to be forgotten that the sole object of treating was to take the English unawares.

"And therefore do you guide them to this end," said the King with pious unction, "which is what you owe to God, in whose service I have engaged in this enterprise, and to whom I have dedicated the whole." The King of France, too--that unfortunate Henry III., against whose throne and life Philip maintained in constant pay an organized band of conspirators--was affectionately adjured, through the Spanish envoy in Paris, Mendoza,--to reflect upon the advantages to France of a Catholic king and kingdom of England, in place of the heretics now in power.
But Philip, growing more and more sanguine, as those visions of fresh crowns and conquered kingdoms rose before him in his solitary cell, had even persuaded himself that the deed was already done.

In the early days of December, he expressed a doubt whether his 14th November letter had reached the Duke, who by that time was probably in England.