Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/210

 I$4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 64. rouse her to a more just perception of her situation. ' I will not deny,', he said, ' but that I have been grieved to see my desire to do your Majesty service so greatly crossed. For your marriage, if your Majesty mean it, remember that by the delay your Highness uses therein, you lose the benefit of time, which, if years be considered, is not the least to be weighed. If you mean it not, assure yourself it is one of the worst remedies you can use, however your Majesty conceives it may serve your turn. If a king of Scots, pretending a title to the crown of England, was like by matching with Spain to have wrought that peril towards your Majesty's father as the present King is towards you, he would not then have stood upon generalities, as your Majesty now doth. Sometimes when your Majesty be- holds in what doubtful terms you stand with foreign princes, you wish with great affection that opportunities offered had not been slipped ; but when they are offered to you, if they are accompanied with charges, they are altogether neglected. The respect of charges has lost you Scotland. I would to God I had no cause to think it might put your Highness in peril of the loss of Eng- land. The cause that moves them here at Paris not to weigh your Majesty's friendship, is that they see you fly charges otherwise than by doing something under- hand. We are now specially instructed by you to yield to nothing that may be accompanied with charges. The General League must be without certain charges ; the Particular League with a voluntary and no certain charge. Your Majesty's predecessors in matters of peril