There is no evidence, however, and no probability, that he had received the royal commands to perpetrate such a crime.
The States believed also, that in those secret negotiations with Parma the Queen was disposed to sacrifice the religious interests of the Netherlands.

In this they were mistaken.

But they had reason for their mistake, because the negotiator De Loo, had expressly said, that, in her overtures to Farnese, she had abandoned that point altogether.

If this had been so, it would have simply been a consent on the part of Elizabeth, that the Catholic religion and the inquisition should be re-established in the Provinces, to the exclusion of every other form of worship or polity.

In truth, however, the position taken by her Majesty on the subject was as fair as could be reasonably expected.