Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/270

 2$4 &E1GN OF ELIZABETH. CH. 65: wrote in the tone which Mendoza himself had adopted. He discouraged every overt movement. He insisted that Lennox should remain quiet. As scornfully as his am- bassador he bade the Jesuits keep to their spiritualities and leave politics alone. When the letters of de Tassis reached him, he expressed his displeasure yet more emphatically ; he absolutely prohibited the repair of either Holt or Parsons, or any other of the crew, to his Court. Money he was willing to give, but only in small quantities, to support the priests of the Scotch mission ; and, after three months' consider- ation., he allowed a few thousand additional crowns for the fortification of Dumbarton. 1 Nothing more could be extracted from him in the way of practical help ; only he encouraged Lennox, vaguely, to hope that a time might come when the Queen of England should be really punished. Even this cold answer might not have sufficed to repress the fever of the conspirators. The Duke of Guise had at his back the great Catholic party of France, which, ready always to take arms against heresy, was at that moment peculiarly irritated. The national pride had been wounded by the heretic Queen. The King was ill and not expected to live. If he died, the crown would fall, first, by the law of succession, to Alencon, who was supporting the Calvinists in the Low Countries ; and, failing Alencon, to Henry of Navarre. A brilliant blow struck by Cruise in England, might not only place his 1 Philip to Mendoza, May 20. Tassis, June II and September 26 : MSS. Simaneas. Philip to de TEULKT vol. v.