THE SPANISH ROAD

- Book Extract Two -

Walsingham began. ‘Philip of Spain is keeping an army of just over 60,000 men in the Netherlands.’ He paused for the effect of this number to be felt by everyone present and then he continued. ‘But Philip’s greatest problem is that he is not keeping his army well. His men have not been paid for six months and they are perilously close to mutiny on a large scale which, of course, would be to the advantage of the Netherlands - and England - if they did so. The Spanish have great difficulty in supplying their men with both money and food because the Dutch rebels are restricting access to the sea ports. Most supplies have to come overland from Italy - a route known as the Spanish Road - which takes an average of three months at this time of year.’
He paused once more, stopped pacing and looked directly at all those seated before him. ‘My spies in Spain tell me that a vital consignment of one million gold florins, for the army, has recently left Genoa in Italy.’…
…‘Now…’ His tone became brisk and businesslike. ‘Here is a map of the Spanish Road…it is likely that the company that has just left Genoa is following this route,’ - he traced his gnarled finger along the road through Lombardy and Franche Comte up to the Netherlands. ‘However, they may reason that we would expect them to transport the gold this way and prefer to risk the North Atlantic Sea and bring it in through the port of Antwerp.