Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/220

 204 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 64. The consequences were extremely curious. The council might consider, but their thoughts were not likely to take form in action, till Spain used sterner weapons than forged letters. Mendoza, like most other Spanish statesmen and soldiers, was weary of intrigue and subterfuge, and recognizing the indisputable fact that England was the representative power of Protestantism, wished most heartily to cross swords with it, and try out the question in fair and open fight. To men like Mendoza and the Duke of Feria and Juan de Yargas, the dilatoriness of Philip was no less irritating than the artifices of Elizabeth to Walsingham and Burghley. Yet Philip could not forget his father's injunctions or the political traditions which he had inherited, and since he could not be forced into war, and his existing relations with England were productive only of ignominy, Men- doza, as a second alternative, not in irony, but in de* liberate seriousness, recommended his master to make up his quarrel with Elizabeth bond fide and with no reserv- ations. The attempt to recover England by revolution had failed hitherto, but there was again hope of success. The Jesuits were busy ; the conversions had been large ; the state of Scotland was promising ; the leading English nobles had promised to rebel. To make a league with tne excommunicated Queen was to defy the Pope, to fling over the eager instruments of insurrection with as much indifference as Elizabeth had flung off Morton. It was the very moment when Campian and his comrades were winning their martyrs' crowns at Tyburn. Yet Mendoza considered notwithstanding that if Spain was