Questionable conduct of Elizabeth.
- sented itself for obtaining the recompense to which
she considered herself entitled. With many expressions of regret for the insecurity of the seas, she offered either to convey the treasure by land to London and to transport it thence, or to permit the Duke of Alva, then in the Netherlands endeavouring to suppress the rebellion, to take it in his own ships to its destination. The ambassador, not without misgivings, accepted the latter alternative; nor, indeed, were his fears groundless. Elizabeth landed the treasure under the plea that "the audacity of the pirates" had rendered it necessary that she should keep it on shore under her own charge, as it would have been unsafe at sea even under convoy of her own fleets.
Vigorous action of the Spanish ambassador. The Spanish ambassador was amazed. He could not suppress his astonishment; but, when he urged that the money was required immediately for the payment of his master's troops, Elizabeth simply pleaded the insecurity of transport, remarking that she would keep it in perfect safety, though afterwards admitting that, as she was in want of money, her vigorous government had retained it "as a loan." No sooner had the ambassador ascertained that this "loan" was to be appropriated, one half in doubling the English fleet, and the other in enabling the Prince of Orange to raise a second army against Alva, than he drew up a statement of the circumstances in Spanish and English for circulation in the city of London, and despatched his secretary in a swift boat to urge Alva to immediate reprisals. As the English trade with Flanders, though less than what it had been, was still a considerable source of the wealth of the London
