He embarked at Gravesend on 19 March that year with his two companions, the poet George Gascoigne and William Herle, but the ship in which they sailed was nearly lost on the coast of Holland owing to the incompetence of the Dutch pilot.
[3] Reaching the English camp in safety, he took part in August that year in the attack on Goes under Captain (afterwards Sir) Humphrey Gilbert and the Prince of Orange's agent Jerome Tseraerts.
[7] Four years later York was detected in a plot with John Van Imbyss to betray Ghent to the Duke of Parma.
[8] Against the advice of the Prince of Orange, who would have preferred a more summary punishment, he was clapped in prison in Brussels, whence he was released when the city fell into Parma's hands in 1585.
On returning to England he quickly fell under suspicion, due perhaps to his association with the Irish fencing master Patrick O'Collun.