mentary lull in the struggle, and the Court were inclining to the Huguenots, yet there was no sign as yet of the growth of any strong national feeling which would hold in check the violence of the two factions. Two deadly enemies who had tried each other's strength were watching an opportunity to renew the conflict at advantage with a hate which was deepening every hour. Of the Netherlands the condition will be described hereafter more particularly. It is enough to say that the Crown of Spain and the popular leaders had come at last to an open breach. At the time that Mary Stuart was taken prisoner at Carberry Hill the Duke of Alva was bringing a Spanish army to Brussels to overwhelm liberty and heresy in a common destruction, and Philip the Second was expected there in the autumn to superintend the consummation in person.

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It was easy to foresee the effect which would be duced upon the English Catholics by the presence, in their immediate neighbourhood, of the Spanish Sovereign, once England's titular King, to whom they had so long looked for guidance and help, at the head of a large body of victorious troops-absolutely victorious, as it was assumed they must be in the unequal struggle which was before them.1 It seemed but too likely that

1 The excitement was naturally greatest in the North. On the 20th of December a letter to Lord Pembroke says: 'I hear by Mr Garrard, the recorder of Chester, that there is in Lancashire a great number of gentlemen and others of the best sort -it is reputed 500-that have taken

a solemn oath among themselves that they will not come at the communion nor receive the sacrament during the Queen's Majesty's reign, whom God long preserve, besides other matters concluded amongst them not certainly known but only to themselves. Whatever the matter

England would drift into the condition of France, and that, in spite of the efforts of the Government, a war of creeds was at no great distance.

Amidst so many elements of disquiet, all parties in Elizabeth's Council-Cecil as well as the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Francis Knowles as well as Arundel and Sussex -turned their minds again to devise means by which the foreign relations of the country could be re-established, and one chief cause of dissatisfaction be removed at home. The Queen's marriage question had now for some time been allowed to sleep. The Queen of Scots' succession had come gradually to be looked upon as a certainty. The Catholics had set their hearts upon it as the term of their own sufferings. The political advantages contingent upon the union of the crowns had reconciled the body of the nation to the prospect of a stranger, and Elizabeth's own inclinations had long pointed in the same direction. The murder of Darnley had revived the old uncertainties. Even men like Arundel and Norfolk had not as yet recovered sufficiently from the shock of that transaction to contemplate Mary Stuart's accession as any longer a possibility, and once more it became necessary. to reopen the

grievance.

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While Leicester had not even yet wholly abandoned hopes,' the council had gone back to Charles of Austria,

the alliance which every day made more desirable for a sovereign in Elizabeth's position. Married to Charles she would be at once out of danger from Spain.

The Archduke at the Court of his father and brother had learned the principles of moderation, which the necessities of their position imposed upon the Emperors of Germany. Himself a Catholic, he had learned to tolerate without difficulty the Lutheranism of the Augsburg Confession, and the efforts, both of the Queen and the higher classes in England, were to keep the Church as near as possible to the Augsburg theology, and to steer it clear of the Genevan channel into which the more earnest Reformers were rapidly setting. Having been trifled with for seven years, the Emperor could not have been expected to make further advances. If the subject was to be re-opened, the initiative might naturally have been taken by England. But the English Ministers could not obtain permission from Elizabeth to do more than indicate that if Maximilian would begin she would not again disappoint him. Maximilian made slight informal overtures, and in May Lord Sussex was chosen to go to Vienna to carry the Garter to the Emperor, and arrange, if possible, the conditions of the marriage.

municating with 'tokens,' and 'meta- | commended the manner of his writphors.' Leicester had complained of Elizabeth's 'extreme rigour.' Elizabeth had called him a cameleon which changed into all colours save innocency.' 'At the sight of his cypher, the Black Heart, she had shown sundry affections.' 'She had

ing,' perhaps as Olivia commended Malvolio's yellow stockings; with much else of a half-serious, halfmocking kind; which Leicester's friends watched anxiously, and sent him daily reports of.-Throgmorton to Leicester, May 9: Domestic MSS.

Very reluctantly Elizabeth had been brought so far upon the way. A month elapsed before she could resolve on the form of Sussex's instructions, and almost a second before she could allow him to set out. At last, in the middle of July, while the Queen of Scots was in so much danger at Lochleven, she permitted him to go, and on the 9th of August he was at Vienna.

This time she was supposed to be serious. So agitated was Catherine de Medici, that she at once renewed her offer of Charles IX., and even proposed to restore Calais if she would take her son. Elizabeth said briefly she could not make herself ridiculous,1 and she alarmed Catherine still more by her unusual decision.

The history of this last earnest effort to bring about the Austrian marriage throws so sharp a light into the undercurrents of English feeling, that it is worth while to follow it closely.

The first point in the instructions which Sussex at last received was on his behaviour at the presentation of the Garter. Those high ceremonies were always accompanied with a religious service. Sussex was forbidden to be present at mass, but he was to suggest that the investiture should take place in the afternoon; and he might attend vespers 'with safety to his conscience.' Making the best excuses which he could for Elizabeth's past treatment of the Archduke, he was then to say when he opened his commission, that

1 'Le offreciéron á Calais si se hici- | una comedia tan graciosa como una ese el matrimonio. La Reyna dixó que vieja y un niño á la puerta de la no dará lugar á que el mundo vea | Iglesia.'-De Silva to Philip, July 9.

'Whatever might by report or otherwise come to his Majesty's ears to the contrary, the Queen was still free to marry whenever God should move her; and although she had been for many years of mind not to enter into marriage, yet the great necessity which her subjects laid upon her had brought her, contrary to her natural inclination, to give ear to the Emperor's motion.' Other proposals had been made to her, but she had ever preferred the Archduke to her other suitors, and she now trusted that, if certain difficulties could be overcome, the marriage might be finally concluded. The Emperor had intimated that his brother would expect permission to have Catholic service in his household. Many inconveniences had happened in other countries from maintaining contrariety of religion,' and in England, though there had been many changes, there was never allowed any contrariety therein at one time.' 'England differed in that from all other States, that it could not suffer those diversities of religion which others were seen to do.' It was to be hoped therefore that the Archduke would be content with the English Liturgy. There was nothing in it which was not in Scripture, and no one calling himself a Christian need dislike any part of it. He and every man might think what they pleased. The law touched no man's conscience, so as public order was not violated by external act or teaching.' The country had been so far peaceably governed under this system, and it could not be altered.

So reasonable this view of the matter appeared to Elizabeth, that she did not anticipate the possibility of