So far from doing this, indeed, news came early in July that Dunkirk, one of the most useful of his ports, within a few miles of Calais, had been captured by the French, as well as Thionville, an important fortress. Mary was panic-stricken at the news, and summoned Feria from Durham House to say that she must at once send off a courier to Philip to know the truth. Feria made light of the news, and said it was not worth while to send in such haste, and the overburdened Queen broke out in angry reproaches at his indifference. How could her merchants send their wool to Flanders, she asked, if Dunkirk was in French hands? and yet Feria treated the matter as of no importance. But when the ambassador suggested that the English fleets in Plymouth and Dover should at once sail to Dunkirk to help the King, Mary eagerly assented, though the Council at once vetoed it; for, said they, the French have also captured Alderney, and it behoved the admiral to go there first. “And really, to tell your Majesty the truth,” wrote Feria, “I did not dare to contradict them, for I saw that if but four French ships were to land their companies in England they would overturn everything.” This was written in July, and shortly afterwards Feria, having hectored the English Queen and Council thus into placing the English fleet almost entirely at Philip’s disposal, and having raised and paid three thousand German mercenaries which he had appropriated, took his leave and returned to Flanders, first visiting Elizabeth at Hatfield, much, he says, to her and his pleasure: “for reasons which I will tell your Majesty when I see you.” Mary now was a mere shadow. The cruel persecutions and the loss of Calais together had completely destroyed the belief of the people in her power to rule England for its own benefit. Her father and grandfather, and even the greatly inferior Northumberland, had managed to maintain the balance of power between the two great Continental rivals upon which the importance of England depended. Mary from the first day of her accession, as we have seen, had neglected this essential point in English policy, and had ended by becoming a mere satellite of the Spanish King, involving her country thus in a ruinous war, in which it had lost much and had nothing to gain. The Council, against which Feria raged so savagely, was, it is true, after the death of Gardiner, composed of men of no commanding ability; but it had done its best to prevent the utter subjection of England to Philip’s aims. The success of its efforts was not great; for as Feria’s correspondence shows the most active members of the Council were bought body and soul by Spain, and Mary was in most cases ready to back up Feria’s arrogant hectoring with her royal authority. For her, in her forlorn condition, the first consideration was to please her husband and prevent the Catholic power, upon which she increasingly depended, from collapse.