Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/405

 I577-] THE SPANISH TREATY. 385 while patriotism was stronger than religious hatred, and the Prince of Orange was the idol for the moment of all the States which had signed the treaty, ir might have been thought that she would have seen, and would for her own sake have used, so splendid an oppor- tunity. It would be safer for the Queen, said Orange, to ally herself with peoples and with a great cause, than with princes who sought their own convenience and were not to be relied upon. 1 But Elizabeth despised ' peoples/ and cared nothing for the ' great cause/ She feared Don John. She meant to take advantage of his difficulties to obtain securities for herself and England. But then and always she wished the Provinces to remain Spanish. The Prince of Orange and the Protestants were her good friends ; but she dreaded the spread of their principles as complicating the problem of pacifi- cation. If she did too much she might find herself at war with Spain ; if too little, France was ready to step in, and take the place which had been first offered to herself. The situation was exactly suited to the character of her diplomacy. She decided to lend, not give, a certain sum of money forty thousand pounds. Twenty thou- sand were sent in bullion on the spot, the rest followed soon after. She stipulated that she was to be repaid in full, in eight months. She had an excuse ready for Philip, that she was merely enabling the States to pay the arrears of the Spanish army, to prevent further 1 Daniel Rogers to "Walsingham, July 20, 1577 : MSS. Flanders. VOL. x. 25