Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/478

 458 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61. would have been thankfully accepted. The King would have been satisfied, the profits of the lands would have been paid into her own treasury, as in fact they were, and she would have parted with nothing that belonged to her: but she did not choose to have it said of her that she was supporting a Government unrecognized by the rest of Europe. She had spent money enough on Scotland, she answered, and she would spend no more. Even her inclination to the League had once more van- ished. She did not absolutely refuse it, but she rejected every one of the conditions which would make it palat- able to the Scots : and she sent Dunfermline back with a reply, which was the prelude to a fresh series of revo- lutions, which sent Morton before long to the scaffold, and to herself brought fit retribution in years of anxiety and danger. What she was about, what secret scheme she was herself revolving in playing thus into the hands of her enemies, the most sagacious of her advisers were unable to divine. ' We have had much ado/ wrote Burghley, 'to bring her Majesty to accept such offers from the Scottish King and his nobles to commit themselves to the protection of her Majesty, which all other kings of this realm have sought by all means both fair and foul, and could never attain the same. A strange thing it is, to see God's goodness so abundantly offered for her Majesty's surety to be so daintily hearkened unto. Yet I trust her Majesty will not reject such a singular favour of God. I am sorry to write thus uncomfortably,