back, had already made a brief but spirited campaign in France; and the
Duke of Parma, after recruiting his health; so, far as it was possible;
at Spa, was preparing himself to measure swords with that great captain
of Huguenots; who now assumed the crown of his ancestors, upon the same
ground. It seemed probable that for the coming years England would be
safe from Spanish invasion, and that Holland would have a better
opportunity than it had ever enjoyed before of securing its liberty and
perfecting its political organization. While Parma, Philip; and Mayenne
were fighting the Bearnese for the crown of France, there might be a
fairer field for the new commonwealth of the United Netherlands.

And thus many of the personages who have figured in these volumes have
already passed away. Leicester had died just after the defeat of the
Armada, and the thrifty Queen, while dropping a tear upon the grave of
'sweet Robin,' had sold his goods at auction to defray his debts to
herself; and Moeurs, and Martin Schenk, and 'Mucio,' and Henry III., and
Catharine de' Medici, were all dead. But Philip the Prudent remained,
and Elizabeth of England, and Henry of France and Navarre, and John of
Olden-Barneveld; and there was still another personage, a very young man
still, but a deep-thinking, hard-working student, fagging steadily at
mathematics and deep in the works of Stevinus, who, before long, might
play a conspicuous part in the world's great drama. But, previously to
1590, Maurice of Nassau seemed comparatively insignificant, and he could
be spoken of by courtiers as a cipher, and as an unmannerly boy just let
loose from school.