Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/416

 396 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 60 Tudor was treated under her brother, and as Elizabeth herself had been treated after her release from Wood- stock ; in some respects her position was better, for she was still called a Queen, and was allowed her Cloth of State. She was not permitted to go where she pleased, but she had all the enjoyments and conveniences which an English country life could yield. She rode, she hunted, she had change of air and scene, going from Sheffield to Chatsworth, from Chatsworth to the baths at Buxton. She was so loosely watched that she corresponded freely with her friends. The ladies of Elizabeth's household, with an eye to the future, fur- nished her with the secrets of the Court. She was the centre of the hopes and fears of the worldly statesmen and political intriguers; and though the 'Queen was often advised to remove her to some stricter guardian- ship, the fear of offending Shrewsbury, or of giving France or Spain a ground of complaint, combined to keep her where she was. Her Protestant affectations were no more heard of. She had lost favour abroad by her supposed instability : she explained it away by saying, ' that when she came first to England she was afraid of alienating a powerful party in a realm which she hoped to make her own.' ' She had never communicated in the English Church/ she said, ( she had merely attended sermons; her friends had told her that she might listen to a preacher as she would listen to the barking of a dog : * she had 1 ' Et sur ce les plus politiques me I un chien abboyer, me persuaderent remonstrants que j'escouterois bien | ouir en salle lesdicts ministres et