and his mother, the English government lost no time in intimating to the States that they were not to be left without an ally.

Queen Elizabeth was however resolutely averse from assuming that sovereignty which she was not unwilling to see offered for her acceptance; and her accredited envoy at the Hague, besides other more secret agents, were as busily employed in the spring of 1585--as Des Pruneaux had been the previous winter on the part of France--to bring about an application, by solemn embassy, for her assistance.
There was, however, a difference of view, from the outset, between the leading politicians of the Netherlands and the English Queen.

The Hollanders were extremely desirous of becoming her subjects; for the United States, although they had already formed themselves into an independent republic, were quite ignorant of their latent powers.

The leading personages of the country--those who were soon to become the foremost statesmen of the new commonwealth--were already shrinking from the anarchy which was deemed inseparable from a non-regal form of government, and were seeking protection for and against the people under a foreign sceptre.

On the other hand, they were indisposed to mortgage large and important fortified towns, such as Flushing, Brill, and others, for the repayment of the subsidies which Elizabeth might be induced to advance.