Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/525

 1580.] THE ALENCON MARRIAGE. 505 there were others too sincerely attached to their mis- tress to feel anything but shame and dismay. Chief among these was the ever-loyal Cecil. 'While your Majesty desired the marriage/ he wrote on the 28th of January, ' I was myself in favour of it, and so am I now persuaded it would be your best security ; but the matter being as it is, I am your servant, and will do my best for you in this and all conditions. You will find me more ready to defend you from the hurt when it comes, than those of your council who have been the occasion of its coming. Your marriage is now broken oft', and no hope left of the good that was thereby expected. Alengon having been brought by your Majesty's means to be the author of trouble in his own country, having by you been drawn from his late enterprise in the Low Countries, and by you hindered of his marriage treated of with the King of Spain's daughter, having now lately come hither to see you to be by you rejected, it may be taken as quite certain that he will now seek to be revenged upon you. You have no hope of an heir, and all eyes will be turned upon your successor. Alenon will probably marry where we feared. France and Spain will then unite against us. Our trade will be destroyed. Foreign soldiers will be landed in Ireland, and in all likelihood there will be a rising at home, supported from abroad in favour of the King and Queen of Scots. The Crown revenues will not enable you to encounter this combina- tion, and when civil troubles have broken out subsidies cannot be raised. ' In the face of these dangers, so far as I understand