A letter written on November 14 from Madrid by the Comte de Fiesque to the Prince de Condé adds: 'La resolution est prise icy de ligue offensive et deffensive entre l'Angleterre et l'Espagne, pour laquelle il sera porté expressément qu'ils attaqueront ou la Guyenne, ou la Normandie, ou qu'ils descendront a la Rochelle, selon ce qui sera jugé a propos pour le bien du party, et cela dans le mois d'Avril prochain[22].' The projected league between England and Spain came to nothing, but the existence of these schemes at the time when Hane was sent to France and the indications afforded by Hane's letters explain the objects of his mission. A minister like Stouppe was an admirable choice when the main object was to learn from Huguenot preachers and Huguenot politicians what their views of the political situation were. If, however, Cromwell was to intervene in France and send an army to Guienne, as he was asked to do, he required also some trustworthy information about the Huguenot strongholds and the coast seaports. The state of the defences of Bordeaux and La Rochelle, and the comparative military value of the different places which Condé's agents and the agents of Bordeaux offered him, were questions on which the opinion of a skilled engineer would be of the greatest value. It is probable that Hane's mission was more military than political, and that he was rather a spy than a political intriguer. Whether spy or political intriguer his peril was much the same. The tortures with which the hangman of Bordeaux threatened him were employed impartially to extract the truth from either. One of Sexby's four companions had been arrested on suspicion in Languedoc. 'He was put in prison,' says Sexby, 'and after racked to make him confess with whom he had corrispondence, but God inabled him to keep secret what he knew, though the torture and paine he suffered cost him his life[23].' It was only by a miracle that Hane escaped a similar fate. The story of his escapes and his wanderings is so vivid and picturesque that it seemed worth rescuing from entire oblivion, even though it throws little light on the dark places of Cromwell's foreign policy.