Let us hear them threaten, and whimper, and chaffer among themselves.
So soon as it was intimated that Henry III.

was about to grant the Netherland, envoys an audience, the wrath of ambassador Mendoza was kindled.

That magniloquent Spaniard instantly claimed an interview with the King, before whom, according to the statement of his colleagues, doing their best to pry into these secrets, he blustered and bounced, and was more fantastical in his insolence than even Spanish envoy had ever been before.
"He went presently to court," so Walsingham was informed by Stafford, "and dealt very passionately with the King and Queen-Mother to deny them audience, who being greatly offended with his presumptuous and malapert manner of proceeding, the King did in choler and with some sharp speeches, let him plainly understand that he was an absolute king, bound to yield account of his doings to no man, and that it was lawful for him to give access to any man within his own realm.

The Queen-Mother answered him likewise very roundly, whereupon he departed for the time, very much discontented." Brave words, on both sides, if they had ever been spoken, or if there had been any action corresponding to their spirit.
But, in truth, from the beginning, Henry and his mother saw in the Netherland embassy only the means of turning a dishonest penny.

Since the disastrous retreat of Anjou from the Provinces, the city of Cambray had remained in the hands of the Seigneur de Balagny, placed there by the duke.