Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/233

 1582.] VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 217 falsehood and absurdity. 1 She bade him write to her, and address his letters as to his wife the Queen of Eng- land ; 2 while to France she sung the same tune, swear- ing that she would do anything that Henry wished when immediate fulfilment could be no longer demanded of her. The English lords conveyed their charge to Flushing, where they left him, as Leicester scornfully said, stranded like a hulk upon a sandbank. 3 He was installed as Duke of Brabant, and the States took an oath of allegiance to him, Leicester jesting at the cere- mony as a pageant and idle illusion. The Prince of Orange intimated that he was accepted by the States only as a pledge that England would support them ; if England failed them, they would not trust their fortunes to so vain an idiot ; while in affected agony at his loss, she declared that she could not bear to think of her poor Frog suffering in those stagnant marshes, and that she would give a million to have him swimming in the Thames again. 4 Having disposed of her lover, and naturally ill pleased with her own performances, the Queen fell into one of her violent fits of ill temper, March. 1 ' Dix6 que por mas quo hiciese, eran todas fictiones y disparate.' Don B. de Mendoza al Rey, 19 He- brero. 2 ' Esta Reyna dixo a Alencjon a la partida que le scribiese de Flandes & mi muger la Reyna de Inglaterra.' Ibid, i Marzo. 3 ' 151 de Leicester ha dicho que dexaba a Aien9on, plantado como nao vieja que habia tocado, que sin gran marea y viento no podria salir del banco donde se habia sentado.' Ibid. 6 Marzo. 4 ' Dixo en publico que diera un millon porque su Rana, que asi Ham* al Alenc,on, nadara en el Temise y no en las aguas estantias de los Payees Bajos.' Ibid. March i.