Now and then, if occasion required, Elizabeth herself would do a little
privateering on her own account. In the next story that I have to tell
she appears as a principal, and her great minister, Cecil, as an
accomplice. The Duke of Alva had succeeded Margaret as Regent of the
Netherlands, and was drowning heresy in its own blood. The Prince of
Orange was making a noble fight; but all went ill with him. His troops
were defeated, his brother Louis was killed. He was still struggling,
helped by Elizabeth's money. But the odds were terrible, and the only
hope lay in the discontent of Alva's soldiers, who had not been paid
their wages, and would not fight without them. Philip's finances were
not flourishing, but he had borrowed half a million ducats from a house
at Genoa for Alva's use. The money was to be delivered in bullion at
Antwerp. The Channel privateers heard that it was coming and were on the
look-out for it. The vessel in which it was sent took refuge in
Plymouth, but found she had run into the enemy's nest. Nineteen or
twenty Huguenot and English cruisers lay round her with commissions from
Conde to take every Catholic ship they met with. Elizabeth's special
friends thought and said freely that so rich a prize ought to fall to no
one but her Majesty.
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