Secret international relations--Mission to England--Unsatisfactory
negotiations with Elizabeth--Position of the Grand Commander--Siege
of Zieriekzee--Generosity of Count John--Desperate project of the
Prince--Death and character of Requesens. 

The Council of Troubles, or, as it will be for ever denominated
in history, the Council of Blood, still existed, although the Grand
Commander, upon his arrival in the Netherlands, had advised his sovereign
to consent to the immediate abolition of so odious an institution.
Philip accepting the advice of his governor and his cabinet, had
accordingly authorized him by a letter of the 10th of March, 1574,
to take that step if he continued to believe it advisable. 

Requesens had made use of this permission to extort money from the
obedient portion of the provinces.  An assembly of deputies was held at
Brussels on the 7th of June, 1574, and there was a tedious interchange of
protocols, reports, and remonstrances.  The estates, not satisfied with
the extinction of a tribunal which had at last worn itself out by its own
violence, and had become inactive through lack of victims, insisted on
greater concessions.  They demanded the departure of the Spanish troops,