Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/434

420 inhabitants from Havre. He had about 5,000 men with him, and during the siege Sir Hugh Paulet threw in a reinforcement of about 800 more. Elizabeth had now the mortification to see her old allies taking the command against her. Montmorency, the constable, had the chief command; and Condé, who had been the principal means of leading her into the war, served under him. Coligny, who had no faith in the perfidious Catherine de Medici, maintained a neutrality. Catherine herself pushed on the siege with all her energy. She entered the besieging camp, carrying with her the young king, her son, and summoning all liege Frenchmen to the contest. During the months of May and June the siege was conducted with great spirit, and the town was defended with equal bravery. In July a grand assault was made upon it with 3,000 men, but they were beaten back with a loss of 400 of their soldiers. On the 27th of the same month a fresh assault was made, which was as stoutly resisted. But the French had now gathered to the siege in immense numbers. It was of the highest importance to regain the town, which commanded the whole traffic to Rouen, Paris, and a vast extent of country; and the besiegers cut passages for the water in the marshes, and made the approaches to the town more passable. The batteries were now brought close under the wall, and breaches were at length made in it. To add to the extremity of the English, pestilence broke out, and, with the heat of summer, swept away the inhabitants by thousands. The streets were filled with the dead. The enemy cut off the supply of fresh water, and there was a failure of provisions.

It was clear that the place could not hold out long, yet the English manned the walls, defended the breaches, and, till the whole garrison was reduced to less than 1,500 men, gave no sign of surrender. The constable made the first proposals for a capitulation, which Warwick agreed to accept; but such was the fury of the French soldiers, or, rather, the rabble collected from all quarters to the siege, that, in spite of the truce, they fired on the besieged repeatedly, and shot the Earl of Warwick, as he stood in a breach in hose and doublet, through the thigh, with an arquebuse. The next day the capitulation was signed, the garrison and people of the town being allowed to retire within six days, with all their effects. The chief marshal, Edward Randall, caused the sick to be carried on board, that they might not be left to the mercy of the French, and himself lent a helping hand. But the infected troops and people carried out the plague with them; it spread in various parts of England, and raged excessively in London. The inns of court were closed; those who could fled into the country. To the plague was added scarcity of money and of provisions. There were earthquakes in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and other places; terrific thunders and lightnings—and all these terrors were attributed by the Papists to the heresies which were in the ascendant.

Thus terminated Elizabeth's demonstration in favour of the Huguenots. She contemplated the humiliating result with indignation, which she was unable to conceal even in the presence of Castelnau, the French ambassador. At one moment she declared that she would not consent to peace, at another she vowed that she would make her commissioners pay with their heads for offering to accept conditions which were gall to her haughty spirit. But there was no alternative. She first attempted to compel the French court to liberate Throckmorton, by seizing the French envoy De Foix, and offering him in exchange; but the French would not admit that Throckmorton was a duly appointed ambassador, and in retaliation for the seizure of De Foix, they arrested Sir Thomas Smith, and consigned him to the castle of Melun. Elizabeth still held the bonds for 500,000 crowns, or the restoration of Calais, and the hostages; and in the end she submitted to surrender the hostages for the return of Throckmorton, and reduced her claim of 500,000 crowns to one-fourth of that sum. Thus, not only Havre but Calais was virtually resigned, though Elizabeth still claimed to negotiate on that point. The proud English queen was, in fact, most mortifyingly defeated, both in the cabinet and the field. The treaty was signed April 11th, 1564.

This French campaign terminated, Elizabeth turned her attention again to Scotland, and the subject on which she was most anxious was the marriage of the Scottish queen. To Elizabeth, who abhorred the idea of any one ever succeeding her on the throne, it was of much consequence how Mary, her presumptive heir, should wed. If to a foreign prince, it might render the claim on the English throne doubly hazardous. By this time it was pretty clear that Elizabeth herself was resolved to take no partner of her power, and, before entering on her endeavours to provide Mary of Scotland with a husband, we may pass in brief review those offers which she herself had refused.

Philip of Spain, we have already stated, lost no time, on the death of Queen Mary, in offering his hand to Elizabeth. She was flattered by the proposal, the more that, united with Spain, she could have no fear of the power of France, or of its demands on the throne for Mary of Scotland. But she was compelled to admit the representations of her wisest counsellors, that Philip, by his bigotry, had rendered his connection with England odious in the minds of the people; that nothing could convert him to a tolerance of Protestantism; and that, as he stood to her precisely in the same degree of affinity as her father had been to Catherine of Arragon, she could not marry him without admitting that their marriage had been valid, and that of her mother consequently null, and herself illegitimate. She assured the Spanish ambassador that if she ever married she would prefer Philip to any other prince, but that she was totally debarred from such an alliance by Philip's former marriage with her sister. Philip replied, that the Pope's dispensation could at once remove that obstacle; but, as she did not listen to that, he made no long delay, but offered his hand to Isabella of France, who accepted him, by which he rendered the position of Elizabeth still more dangerous, for now France, Spain, and Scotland had a national alliance for the support of Roman Catholicism and the suppression of the Reformed faith.

Her next suitor appeared in the person of Charles, Archduke of Austria, the son of the Emperor Ferdinand, and cousin of Philip. This prince was young, of agreeable person, and of superior talents and accomplishments. Again Elizabeth was much flattered by his addresses, and, again, his power would present a sufficient barrier to