After the trial was over Lord Burleigh sent for the boys, and gave
them a very gracious message in the queen's name, together with two
rings in token of her majesty's gratitude. Highly delighted with
these honours they returned to Hedingham, and devoted themselves
even more assiduously than before to exercises in arms, in order
that they might some day prove themselves valiant soldiers of the
queen.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SPANISH ARMADA
The struggle that was at hand between Spain and England had long
been foreseen as inevitable. The one power was the champion of
Roman Catholicism, the other of Protestantism; and yet, although so
much hung upon the result of the encounter, and all Europe looked
on with the most intense interest, both parties entered upon the
struggle without allies, and this entirely from the personal fault
of the sovereigns of the two nations.
Queen Elizabeth, by her constant intrigues, her underhand dealings
with France and Spain, her grasping policy in the Netherlands,
her meanness and parsimony, and the fact that she was ready at any
moment to sacrifice the Netherlands to her own policy, had wholly
alienated the people of the Low Country; for while their own
efforts for defence were paralysed by the constant interference
of Elizabeth, no benefit was obtained from the English army, whose
orders were to stand always on the defensive -- the queen's only
anxiety appearing to be to keep her grasp upon the towns that had
been handed over to her as the price of her alliance.
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