Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/172

 156 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [CH. 64. tioii, Cecil would have hardly counselled a repetition of the experiment ; while Drake had been plundering pri- vate individuals, compromising, as Cecil thought, the honour of the country, and dishonouring the cause of which he wished to see his mistress the open and ac- knowledged champion. Far different was the opinion of Sir Francis Wal- singham. Walsingham, like Burghley, would have preferred open courses could Elizabeth have been brought to consent to them, but he knew that it could not be. She had baffled his policy, disappointed his hopes, and with her broken engagements had made her- self ' hateful to the world.' In Scotland, in France, in the Low Countries, she had allowed him to pledge her good faith, to tempt the friends of the good cause to risk their lives and fortunes in reliance on her word ; and one by one she had left them to be defeated in the field, to die on the scaffold, or to hold on in despairing self-defence, with no genuine intention of interposing between them and destruction. Walsingham was per- suaded that her own turn would come at last, and he thought it better for her that the issue should be tried out while she had friends still strong in the field. If he could force her into a bolder position he was not scrupulous about the means, and as he could not influ- ence her by persuasion he was content to play upon her weakness. She shrunk from war, because war was costly, but he taught her to see by Drake's exploit that war might give her the wealth of the Indies. Drake therefore, when he returned to London a se-