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Brissac returned with this answer to Guise, who saw that it was hopeless to attempt making a display in the eyes of Queen Elizabeth, but gave private orders that the ambassador should not be molested. Such were the consequences of the day of the barricades and thus the path of Philip was cleared of all obstructions on, the part of France. His Mucio was now, generalissimo.
England was to be conquered in order that the rebellious Netherlands might be reduced; and 'Mucio' was to be let slip upon the unhappy Henry III. so soon as it was thought probable that the Bearnese and the Valois had sufficiently exhausted each other. Philip was to reign in Paris, Amsterdam, London, and Edinburgh, without stirring from the Escorial.
Meantime Philip, for whom and at whose expense all this work had been done by he hands of the faithful Mucio, was constantly assuring his royal brother of France, through envoy Longlee, at Madrid, of his most affectionate friendship, and utterly repudiating all knowledge of these troublesome and dangerous plots.
Brissac returned with this answer to Guise, who saw that it was hopeless to attempt making a display in the eyes of Queen Elizabeth, but gave private orders that the ambassador should not be molested. Such were the consequences of the day of the barricades and thus the path of Philip was cleared of all obstructions on, the part of France. His Mucio was now, generalissimo.
He protested that he had never seen anything, or known anything of the League." Here was a man who knew how to keep a secret, and who had no scruples in the matter of dissimulation, however enraged he might be at seeing men and money diverted from his own masterly combinations in order to carry out these schemes of his master. Mucio, on the contrary, was imprudent and inclined to boast.
When after so much talking and tampering, there began to be recrimination among the leaguers, Philip was very angry with his subordinate. "Here is Mucio," said he, "trying to throw the blame of all the difficulties, which have arisen, upon us.
Alexander's master sat in his cabinet with his head full of Mucio, Don Antonio, and Queen Elizabeth; while Alexander himself was left neglected, almost forgotten. His army was shrinking to a nullity. The demands upon him were enormous, his finances delusive, almost exhausted. To drain an ocean dry he had nothing but a sieve. What was his position?
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.
Procrastinating and indolent himself, he was for ever rebuking the torpid movements of the Guises. "Let Mucio set his game well at the outset," said he; "let him lay the axe to the root of the tree, for to be wasting time fruitlessly is sharpening the knife for himself." This was almost prophetic.
In consequence, the Duke of Guise was becoming very importunate for Philip's subsidies. "Mucio comes begging to me," said Parma, "with the very greatest earnestness, and utters nothing but lamentations and cries of misery. He asked for 25,000 of the 150,000 ducats promised him. I gave them. Soon afterwards he writes, with just as much anxiety, for 25,000 more.
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