Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/242

 CHAPTER LXV. THE JESUITS IN SCOTLAND. wrote Walsingham of the policy of his mistress, ' that when we want the friendship and amity of the princes our neighbours, we do then lament that we have not sought it. When it is offered unto us, we make little account of it.' l With a temperament so constituted that she could feel neither sustained interest in the questions which divided Europe, nor sustained anxiety for herself, Elizabeth floated with the stream of the revolution, trusting to the goodness of her intentions and to the fortune which had borne her so long un- harmed, supposing that she was secured by the jealousies of the rival powers, and only roused to energy when threatened by the combinations which she had provoked, or when Burghley forced her to see that causes which might protect the independence of England need be no protection to herself. 2 While she was jesting in private 1 Walsingham to Sir H. Cobham, lunc 20, 1582 : MSS. France. 2 ' It is most likely that Monsieur will now marry in some place where
 * ITCH is the course of all our proceedings/