Nuevas de Parma al mando inglés por mediación de De Loo

DE LOO to BURGHLEY.

"Ad verificandum : Post tempestatem, tranquillum,

" your lordship has, by grace of her Majesty, made me quiet and joyful instead of troubled and melancholy, by yours of the last of August (to which I have already replied) and now by your very friendly letter of the 13th of this month, in which you acknowledge mine of Aug. 26 and 31, but have forgotten to mention that of Aug. 15, with which went M. de Champagney's letter, and a note about the commissioners and their passport.

Your lordship will since have received three more from me, of the 8th, 13th and 16th inst. with a new safe-conduct, under the secret seal of his Majesty, subscribed by the Duke, the safe arrival of which I am anxious to know.

And in reply to yours, I will say that I went at once and laid it before the duke, wherewith he was much pleased, saying in very friendly manner as follows :There is no cause to doubt my sincerity (as it is here said that her Majesty might do) for if I had not had a very good disposition for peace, I should not have made the first overture myself, nor should I have agreed to the things which you know of, adding: what was there to force me to do so? On the contrary, I rather had occasion to suspect them; from their having made so many delays and lost me the best part of the summer, it being now more than a year and a half since this was first treated of. And coming to the point, that her Majesty intends to continue her purpose to negotiate a peace, if she may have reasonable conditions, the Duke replied : Why should it be otherwise, that being what I seek, yet I cannot forbear, in the meanwhile, from continuing preparations for war in case there shall be no other remedy, though no good offices will be wanting to arrange matters.

As to the controversy between the Earl of Leicester and the States of Holland and Zeeland, the Duke does not deny that he has been sufficiently informed, concluding that he will be very glad for the deputies to come at the time mentioned, if whatever is to be done may be done quickly. In reply to my question he said I might communicate the letter to M. de Champagney and Signor Cosimo, which I have done, to the great satisfaction of both, and M. de Champagney kept me to supper, on account of a great toast, which he was proposing. Signor Cosimo, amongst other things told me that the Duke lamented over the time lost since the taking of L'Escluse, because of his promise to me and now that such large forces are arriving, the Duke will be driven to make use of them by sending them to forage for food in Holland, to the utter destruction of all that country, though his Highness would have been very glad if he could have done otherwise; and he could have done so if her Majesty had sent to treat sooner, according to her intention told him by myself.

And he said that his Highness merely feigned to come to Brussels to give order for the coming of the new troops, having also the two forts made on the island of Cadsand (which were not needed) near the Sluse, on purpose to amuse the force in the belief (he swore to me) that without fail they [the deputies] would come in the mean time; giving order also that the Italians and Spaniards should not hurry to come, who otherwise would have arrived some days ago; but in the end, the Duke seeing such continued delay, and judging that he was being mocked, as I am sure he was instigated by some person of weight to believe, he ordered all the captains to hasten their coming, in order to avoid worse blame, for letting the season slip away in idleness.

This was self evident, the soldiers being kept scattered near Antwerp and in divers other places so strangely that all marvelled how he would be able to use them for anything, and the Duke does not well know (he said) how to excuse it to the King. He said much more, protesting the Duke's sincere desire to please her Majesty, but adding that some persons of quality give his Highness to understand that the Queen is only waiting to see what the King of Navarre will do with the succours come to him from Germany, without any intention to make peace at all ; and that if those in France come to an agreement amongst themselves, then those forces will come into these parts, to give the Duke something to do.

Against this (he said) they reckon to have ready forty thousand footmen, good soldiers, with abundance of brave cavalry and money. I told him that these reports were mere calumnies, invented by the enemies of the peace, and that the truth of this would shortly be manifest. God grant it, he said ; and if the Duke were not in earnest, M. de Champagney would not be one of the chief deputies, since everyone knows that he desires peace more than anyone else, and the disposition of the President is known also.To the President I have said nothing, in order not to go beyond the Duke's order.

His Highness remarked much on your lordship's long letter, how desirous her Majesty seemed to satisfy him; and he took up the letter and looked at it closely more than once. And it pleased him to see therein the name of the Lord Chancellor. Don Giovanni de Medici has arrived here and the cousin of the Duke of Savoy is expected, and also (I believe) a brother of the Emperor, with Italian and German noblemen for the service of the King of Spain.

Some believe that in a few days, the Duke (if the deputies do not arrive) will go back into the field, to remain abroad the whole winter, and it may well be that he will go to Deventer; to be near the army, and to avail himself of any opportunity to possess himself of territory. I believe that he has written to the King that if he cannot bring matters to an agreement amicably, he will go forward with his forces, and that they will not let him lack money or men.

On the other hand I can also affirm that if her Majesty's deputies arrive with the good disposition required, they will find these lords (and the Duke himself above all) most determined to agree to all that may reasonably be demanded, with a certain and perfect renewal of love between herself and the King of Spain, as also for the benefit of the Low Countries in general, to make which good I will hazard the loss both of body and soul if it be found not to be so ; banishing from memory all jealousy of the past, the Duke of Parma being a most noble Italian prince, descended from Charles the Fifth, as he shows himself plainly every day by his treatment of the Spaniard who was never so kept in awe as now under his government ; non enim bene conveniunt (ab antiquo) natura et conditionibus ex diametro inter se repugnantibus.

I am sorry that the news from your side comes here so slowly, I having only received yours of the 13th of this month on the 24th and I see that mine take the like; yet I am afraid of the cost of sending an express. I do not write to Mr. Controller, believing that at this time he will have set out.

Brussels, 26 September, 1587, stilo antico. Add. Endd. by Burghley. Italian, 6 pp. [Flanders I. f. 345.]