De Spes had been saying for weeks past that the best way to bring the Queen to her knees, and to force her into the arms of Spain, would be to stop all English trade; and when he had sent to Alba the unwise advice to make the seizure of English property he still believed that such a measure would dismay the “heretic” Government. So far from doing that it placed Elizabeth technically in the right; for up to that point she had not openly avowed her intention of keeping the loan money; and the value of Spanish-Flemish property in England was immensely greater than that of English property in Philip’s dominions. The news of the seizure of the loan money fell upon Alba and his master like a death sentence. Without this money to pay his troops Alba was almost in despair, and Philip had exhausted his last rag of credit in raising the loan. In vain de Spes raged and fumed. Cecil and his mistress were perfectly cool about it; for they saw that the impetuousness of their opponents had put them in the right, and the large sum of ready money they had seized strengthened them as it proportionately weakened Philip. De Spes’s house was placed under guard; and a threatening mob in the City of London breathed vengeance upon the foreigners, and especially Spaniards, most of whom had fled into hiding. To make matters worse, a cipher letter from de Spes to Alba was intercepted and deciphered, full of violent and insulting references to Cecil, and other letters to Spanish friends in Flanders containing foolish abuse of the Queen herself.[180] Called upon peremptorily for explanation of these references, the ambassador could only palliate, disavow, and explain that he did not mean what he said; and he himself was placed under arrest and forbidden access to the Court.