Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/235

 1582.] VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 210 them liberty of conscience at least. Mendoza, to whom the Queen's words were immediately reported, was ready to encourage her ; he ascertained however that Leicester, notwithstanding her violence, was the only person that had influence with her. Leicester told her that if she allied herself with Spain, every town in the Netherlands would at once be garrisoned by the French ; and his own ambition, which it was to be feared that she might be tempted to indulge, was to obtain the Netherlands for himself. The humour of France meanwhile was becoming really dangerous. The fanatical faction was at no time easy to control. If the politicians and the Huguenots were ready for a war with Spain, the Guisians and the Catholics had an equal detestation for England ; and had any other sovereign been on the throne than the weak and vicious Henry of Valois, the English treaty would have been torn in shreds and flung in Elizabeth's face. But Henry, like Philip, inherited the traditions of his race. Elizabeth had out-manoeuvred him, and he had a Spanish quarrel on his hands. Experience had shown that an alliance between Catholic Spain and schismatic England was -not impossible. Francis I. had forced Henry VIII. into a combination with Charles ; and the result had been an invasion of France, and a war which ended in the loss of Piedmont and Milan, in the defeat of St Quentin's and the destruction of French influence in Scotland. Henry hated the House of Guise too cordially to risk at their side a repetition of the same misfortunes. .