It was a bitter pill for Philip that he should have to brook Elizabeth’s interference between his rebel subjects and himself, and he treated Wilkes in very high and mighty fashion, on the pretext that his rank was inadequate for such a mission. But he made amends by sending to England, hard upon Wilkes’ heels, a scion of one of the noblest houses in Spain as his ambassador. Soldier, author, diplomatist, and courtier, Don Bernardino de Mendoza, a man with the pride of Lucifer and the intolerance of St. Dominic, was entrusted with a mission of humility to the Queen of all the “heretics.” No apology had ever been sent by Elizabeth for the expulsion of de Spes, or for the seizure of the treasure; Guaras was a close prisoner, daily threatened with torture, and his claim to diplomatic privilege laughed at; yet the King of Spain was obliged to swallow his pride, and send an ambassador who was almost a suppliant to beg Elizabeth not to help his revolted subjects. The change of position between the two sovereigns since the beginning of the Queen’s reign is nowhere so clearly seen as by a comparison of the instructions of Mendoza with the attitude of Feria and his master, described in the earlier pages of the present volume. Mendoza’s mission was piteously apologetic. Don Juan and the Spanish troops should be withdrawn. It was all a mistake about the abrogation of the edict of toleration. The States should have all they demanded if they would only be loyal and Catholic, and Elizabeth was appealed to earnestly not to aid rebellion in her good brother’s States. Mendoza was directed to “endeavour to keep her in a good humour, and convinced of our friendship, banishing the distrust of us which she now appears to entertain, and for which we have given her no good cause.” The English ministers were all to be heavily bribed, and at any cost, the new ambassador was instructed, English neutrality was to be secured.