Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/346

 326 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH, 60. were thriving under the peace and prospering in their worldly comforts, while France and Flanders were torn in pieces by civil war. If she had struck openly into the quarrel, Germany would probably have followed, and Eomanism might perhaps have been driven back behind the Alps and Pyrenees ; but as, in doing so, she would have created the deepest resentment in England, the attempt might also have cost her her own throne, and she might have been herself more successful in provoking rebellion than Mary Stuart or the emissaries of the Pope. Her first duty was to her own people, and both for herself and England there were protecting con- ditions which war would forfeit, but which would hardly fail her as long as she remained at peace. The massacre of St Bartholomew had brought France no nearer to Spain. Spain was reluctant as ever to permit the Guises to interfere by force for Mary Stuart. French poli- ticians could not allow Philip to invade and conquer England. Philip had made an effort to cut the knot. Chapin Yitelli's dagger was to have disposed of Eliza- beth, and Mary Stuart and the Duke of Norfolk were to have taken the crown with Alva at their backs ; but Norfolk's head had fallen and Mary's last friends at Edinburgh had been hanged, and Philip had retraced his steps, had washed his hands of his English friends, and was once more on good terms with his sister-in-law. The Bull declaring her deposed was ostentatiously and universally ignored ; Charles IX. made a league with her in the face of it ; the Spanish Council of State had