Accordingly Mucio got the two hundred thousand. One-third of the meagre
supply destined for the relief of the King's starving and valiant little
army in the Netherlands was cut off to go into the pockets of the
intriguing Duke of Guise. "We must keep the French," said Philip, "in a
state of confusion at home, and feed their civil war. We must not allow
them to come to a general peace, which would be destruction for the
Catholics. I know you will put a good face on the matter; and, after
all, 'tis in the interest of the Netherlands. Moreover, the money shall
be immediately refunded."

Alexander was more likely to make a wry face, notwithstanding his views
of the necessity of fomenting the rebellion against the House of Valois.
Certainly if a monarch intended to conquer such countries as France,
England, and Holland, without stirring from his easy chair in the
Escorial, it would have been at least as well--so Alexander thought--to
invest a little more capital in the speculation. No monarch ever dreamed
of arriving at universal empire with less personal fatigue or exposure,
or at a cheaper rate, than did Philip II. His only fatigue was at his
writing-table. But even here his merit was of a subordinate description.
He sat a great while at a time. He had a genius for sitting; but he now
wrote few letters himself. A dozen words or so, scrawled in
hieroglyphics at the top, bottom, or along the margin of the interminable
despatches of his secretaries, contained the suggestions, more or less
luminous, which arose in his mind concerning public affairs. But he held
firmly to his purpose: He had devoted his life to the extermination of
Protestantism, to the conquest of France and England, to the subjugation
of Holland. These were vast schemes. A King who should succeed in such
enterprises, by his personal courage and genius, at the head of his
armies, or by consummate diplomacy, or by a masterly system of finance-