counsel, and renew his offer of marriage. But Elizabeth distrusted the French, and half thought Alençon’s move was only a cloak for a Catholic invasion of England from France and Spain combined; so she could run no risks, and at once subsidised a mercenary German army of 20,000 men, under the Duke Hans Casimir, to be ready to cross the Flemish frontier when necessary in her interest, whilst she still actively continued her efforts to bring about a fresh agreement on the basis of the pacification of Ghent between Don John and the States. Under no circumstances, she repeated again and again to all parties, would she allow the French to become paramount in Flanders, and she swore violently to Mendoza, “three times by God that if Don John did not re-enact the perpetual edict of peace, she would help the States whilst she had a man left in England.”[100] English auxiliaries were allowed to slip over to the States by the thousand with arms and money; and the Duke of Arschot’s brother, the Marquis d’Havrey, who came from the Walloons to beg for aid, was made clearly to understand that for every Frenchman in Flanders there must be an Englishman. The States desired nothing better; it meant double help for them, and they were ready to promise anything for men and money. When de Bacqueville first arrived in England Elizabeth was still uncertain as to whether Henry III. was helping his brother, and she kept the envoy at arm’s length for awhile, Sussex being the intermediary between them; but when Walsingham and Cobham returned from an unsuccessful mission of peace in Flanders, and her own agents in France had assured her that Alençon was really acting in despite of his brother, her attitude towards her young suitor completely changed. De Bacqueville had succeeded in impressing honest Sussex with his master’s sincerity, and the desirability of the match. Alençon, he said, was determined to marry “either the Queen or the Netherlands”; and if she would not listen to his suit, he would join hands with Don John and the Spaniards. Late in July Alençon sent another agent, named de Quincy, to England, to again assure the Queen that “he would be directed by her in all his actions in the Low Countries”; and Sussex, who was again the intermediary, laid before the Queen strong arguments in favour of her marriage.[101]