Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/221

 1 5 73. 1 THE MA SSA CRE OF ST BAR THOL OME W. 201 But Elizabeth, reassured by her treaty with Spain, was far away from the thoughts into which she had been frightened by the massacre in Paris, and was endea- vouring, as usual, to forget the engagements into which she had been forced with Morton. She felt that the fall of the Castle would be a final end of the schemes which she had so long fostered. She would not now give up the Queen of Scots to be executed, even if the Scots would consent to execute her. If the King's Govern- ment were firmly and completely established, the last hope of a ' composition ' would be gone, and Mary Stuart would remain a burden on her own hands till she died. She had promised assistance, but when it came to the point she would not give it. She haggled about terms. She said if she sent troops the Regent must pay for them, when she knew that the Regent could scarcely keep his household at Dalkeith from starving. The next post brought word that she 'had stayed her purpose/ and ' that no force was to be sent/ The terms offered by the Castle were reasonable, and the Regent had no sufficient ground to reject them. Sir Henry Killigrew simply dared not give these messages. He told Burghley plainly that if the Queen broke her promise this time, ' there would be foreign interference, with great danger to herself and her own realm.' He knew, from an authority which it was im- possible to doubt, that ' the offers from the Castle were all dissimulation.' ' They were made only because they next Parliament to he holden he I what might he done.' Killigrew to would prove the nohlemen to see I Burghley, March 4 : MSS. Scotland.