Not so, however, with regard to the concentrated magnitude of the demands, greater than had ever been made for such an enterprise before. Santa Cruz wanted for the invasion of England 150 great ships, 40 store hulks, 320 small craft of 50 to 80 tons burden, 40 galleys and 6 galleasses, or 556 sail in all, besides 40 skiffs and 200 landing rafts. There were needed 30,000 sailors and nearly 64,000 soldiers, with 1,600 cavalry horses, all to be shipped from Spain, and this enormous multitude was to be provisioned beforehand for eight months with food and water. Deducting the ordinary cost of armaments in Spain, the extra estimated expense to be incurred by the enterprise was placed by Santa Cruz at 3,800,000 ducats.[277] The sum in money was much greater than Philip had ever had to provide in Spain for any one enterprise before, and it took him aback now. The Pope, it is true, had promised a million ducats, but not a soldo would he pay beforehand, and the Italian States might be coerced into contributing; but the bulk of this vast sum in ready money had to be wrung somehow out of already exhausted Castile, and, anxious as Philip was to make assurance doubly sure, he knew that this was impossible; so Santa Cruz’s estimates had to be modified. The opportunity for the invasion, nevertheless, was one that could hardly be expected to recur. The cup of Elizabeth’s provocations was full to the brim, and her anxiety to open peace negotiations proved her own apprehensions. France, for almost the first time, was paralysed and could not interfere. Leicester’s ineptitude in Holland had even turned the feeling of the Dutch against their protectors, whilst many of the English troops and their leaders, such as Roland York, Sir W. Stanley, and Colonel Semple had deserted to the Spanish side and had delivered to Parma the fortresses occupied by them. The Turk, moreover, was for the time harmless, and Don Antonio was already a discredited and waning force. So, although Philip did not approve of Santa Cruz’s plan that the whole army should be embarked in Spain, he gave orders that the arsenals and dockyards should work night and day, and through Spain and Portugal, Sicily, Naples, and Lombardy there rang the echoes of warlike preparations such as they had never known before; whilst the recluse of the Escorial, shutting himself away from all other tasks, took counsel how he might effect his purpose with the means at his disposal.