There was goodwill in plenty, but the utter failure of the prince's earlier efforts had made people despair.
These earlier efforts had indeed, on land, been disastrous, but they had not been confined entirely to land operations.

Orange, in his capacity as a sovereign prince, had given _letters of marque_ to a number of vessels under the command of the lord of Dolhain.

These vessels were simply corsairs and they were manned by fierce fanatical sectaries, desperadoes inflamed at once by bitter hatred of the papists and by the hope of plunder.

These "Beggars of the Sea" (_Gueux de mer_), as they were called, rapidly increased in number and soon made themselves a terror in the narrow seas by their deeds of reckless daring and cruelty.

William tried in vain to restrain excesses which brought him little profit and no small discredit.