Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/24

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 57. the Mediterranean had interfered with the departure of the Duke of Medina, but the delay, if tantalizing, would not be necessarily fataL The refugees at Louvain expected that with the coming spring at latest they would be at home again, purging their country of the stains of heresy ; and the traitors in the Queen's house- hold kept them constantly informed of every movement in the English Court. 1 The young Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lor- raine had been at Brussels with Alva, and it was un- derstood that if the French Government took the side of England the Guise faction would revolt. Lord Derby was said to have Catholic service in his house- hold without disguise, and to be casting cannon in the Isle of Man. Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex, were believed to be waiting only for Norfolk's instructions to rise at a moment's notice : and the Queen was thought to have lost her only chance of saving herself by trifling witlc France, and by neglecting at the same time to form a league with Count Louis and the German princes. 2 So matters stood when an insignificant accident threw the Duke of Norfolk into Cecil's power. A 1 * The rebels all expect to be in England next spring with the Duke of Alva, and then they will spoil the new ministers heretics of all they have and hang them and not leave one of them alive. They all came of Luther ; and the devil came to Luther by night to tell him what he should say. They say the Queen of England is no righteous Queen and ought to be put away. If the weather is fair they have news from the Court of all that passes there every two days.' Report of Convers- ation at the Earl of Westmoreland's table, by Henry Simson: Border MSS., October 8. 2 Avisos de Inglaterra, September I : MSS. Simancas.