356 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 66. she might claim a voice in the disposal of them ; at all events she might recover part of the treasure which she had lavished on the wretched Alencon. It will be re- membered that six years before, the States had borrowed twenty thousand pounds from her, and she had made herself afterwards security for forty thousand pounds in addition. The debt had never been paid. As she held the jewels of the House of Burgundy in pawn, the States had thought no more about the matter. But she may have possibly reflected that these jewels would have to be given up to Philip after the reconquest, and either for this or some other reason she determined, while the States had still a corporate existence, to repay herself both principal and interest. Notwithstanding the war, an extensive trade continued between the United Provinces and Spain. Their merchant fleet was expected in the Channel on its return from Cadiz. She proposed quietly to take possession of it. ' The causes of the loans ' were first formally ' set down,' as Elizabeth pleased to describe them. She had justified herself, from the first, for assisting the States, on the ground that she could not allow them to be annexed to France. She still maintained the same position, distinctly denying that she had been in- fluenced by hostility to Spain. 1 ' Hard it is/ said the 1 ' I have set down,' said Walsing- ham's secretary, ' the causes of those Joans. Her Majesty doubted that one or the other would follow, if they vere not holpen. My master direct- ed me to name those causes, though in truth I do not see how it will stand with honour et fcederum fide. I could wish they were spared, and some other colour set upon the matter. The States in all intend- ment of her Majesty are taken as
