Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/186

 7 170 REIGN OP ELIZABETH. [en. 64. February. proceeding, and blame others though the fault be in ourselves.' l Marchmont came. She received him with the most ardent demonstrations of friendship. There was nothing, she said, which she now so keenly desired as the arrival of the commissioners ; every hour which they tarried was a thousand years. Courtesy would not permit Marchmont to doubt her sincerity. He hurried back with the happy news to Paris, and she charged him with a letter to her lover and the significant present of a ring. Sussex, Crofts, even Burghley be- lieved now that her mind was made up, and that the marriage was to be after all. 2 Only Walsingham re- mained contemptuously incredulous Walsingham and the Spanish ambassador. France, eager to be convinced, at once ap- pointed an embassy to England, and an embassy splendidly composed. France evidently was now pre- pared, with England at its back, to strike effectively for the overthrow in Europe of the Spanish supremacy ; and once committed to the war, a liberal internal policy would have followed by inevitable necessity, and the influence of the Guises and the Jesuits would have been at an end. The first commissioner was a Prince of the blood royal. Francis, son of the Duke of Montpensier. He was accompanied by the Marshal de Cosse, La Mothe Fenelon, Chasteauneuf, Brisson President of the Parlia- March. 1 Walsingham to Bowes and to Wallop, March 17, 1581 : Muu- DIN. 2 Mendoza to Philip, February 27 : MSS. Simanca*.