Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/98

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. Elizabeth however would give no answer about Alen- con, and could not decide whether to punish or pardon the late conspirators. The same in everything with Norfolk, with the Queen of Scots, with Scotland, with her marriage, with the terms of the alliance she could decide on nothing. From a mixture of motives, some honourable to her, some merely weak, some rising from the twist in her mental constitution, she hesitated to adopt, and she would not reject, the means which were pressed upon her for securing her throne, and she lay with napping sails drifting in the gale. With such spirits as they could collect under these hard circumstances, the English envoys went to work upon the treaty, encountering obstacles which only the steadiness of the French King prevented from being in- superable. The Pope, knowing well the stakes which were being played for, entreated, prayed, and threatened. If Charles would come back to his allegiance to Holy Church, he offered to make him General of the Holy League against the Infidels, and ( Emperor of Constan- tinople.' 1 He sent his blessing, and substantial tokens of it, to his saintly child Anjou ; who, as Smith said in scorn, would make the Pope, in recompense, Caliph of Bagdad Summum Pontificem Babylonise. The pres- sure of all Catholic France was brought to bear against the King's resolution ; and, considering his age and training, his perseverance was not a little creditable to him.

Sir T. Smith to Bnrghley, January 18: MSS. France.