Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/523

 1 5 79-] THE ALEN^ON MARRIAGE. 503 out of horror at this new and unwonted punishment, or else out of pity to the men, being of most honest and unblameable report, or else out of hatred to the mar- riage, which most men presaged would be the overthrow of religion/ The same morning, when the butcher's work was over, the Queen again summoned the council, and con- descended this time to tell them her resolution. Her mind was made up. Monsieur was to be her husband ; and the preliminaries were to be completed with all haste. 1 She had given so fierce a proof that she was in earnest, that the council ceased to mistrust her. The treaty was drawn out and signed by Simier at Green- wich on the 24th of November ; 2 and nothing now re- mained but the sanction of Parliament, before Monsieur might return to England for the concluding ceremony. The meeting of Parliament however could not be avoided, and the late cruel doings had not made the prospect of it more agreeable. It was the old Parlia- ment of 1572, which the Queen had not ventured to dissolve, saturated though it had proved to be with Puritanism. The circulars had been issued for the members to be in their places in November ; but the temper of the spectators round the scaffold had been so evidently dangerous, and it was so likely that the House of Commons would reflect the general discontent, that Elizabeth controlled her impatience. Mauvissiere wrote to the Court of France that the marriage must be post- 1 Don Bernardino al Rey, November 9. 3 Treaty with M. Simier, November 24, 1579: MSS. France.