Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/390

 370 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 6(3; text, the crown shall be the mark which no change of religion can save. The repose which her Majesty has hitherto enjoyed has wholly depended on the princes her neighbours' troubles at home. These troubles will . not long continue. She must look to the peril out of hand, which can neither abide long delay of consulta- tion, nor stay in execution of that which may tend to the prevention thereof.' l To understand the meaning of Elizabeth's present attitude, we must turn to her relations with another country, Charles IX. and his brother, who had just succeeded him as Henry III., had been successively suitors for her hand. The negotiation which fell to the ground with the massacre of St Bartholomew, was re- vived afterwards in behalf of the third brother, Francis of Alen9on, a pock-marked, unhealthy dwarf. Cathe- rine de Medici, it will be recollected, when the religious objections were raised by Anjou, hinted that she had another son, from whom no such difficulty need be an- ticipated. Alen9on, in the terrors which followed the massacre, had thought of flying for refuge to England. He had friends about the Court ; and when the danger passed off, the Queen-mother, who believed that sooner or later Elizabeth would be compelled to marry, held his pretensions continually before her eyes. La Mothe Fene- Ion was recalled. His place at the English Court was taken by Castelnau de Mauvissiere, a politician of the 1 A brief discourse laying forth the uncertainty of her Majesty's present peace and quietness. A- bridged, August, 1576: MSS* Do- mestic.