Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/308

 292 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. that when La Mothe was in England as ambassador lie was a lamb, and that now he was a vixen, 1 but he might gain less by his cunning than he looked for. She tried the marriage on again. La Mothe declined to dip his fingers in the pitch with which he had defiled them already. If the Queen wished to reopen that subject, he said, she must write herself to Alengon. Secretary Pinart hinted to Cobham, that if she objected to take a husband for her own person, she might give Alencon the little Arabella Stuart, and settle the crown on them. 2 Mendoza was told that she parried Pinart's suggestion by pretending that she had powers from Par- liament to appoint any one that she pleased to succeed her, and that if France would declare war against Spain and send an army to the Low Countries, she would name Alencon, married or unmarried. 3 Leicester, it seems, had an eye on Lady Arabella for his own son. Mary Stuart's life was thought a bad one, and James ran a fair chance of destruction among the Scotch nobles. In default of these, the lawyers were 1 ' Una raposa.' 2 ' Pinart pretending to under- stand the meaning was not to suffer the Scotch King to become successor to the crown.' Cobham to Wai- si ngham, December 19 ; MSS. France. s 'La Reyna scribio una carta de propia mano, en la cual dice que cuando el Key de Francia publica- mente quisiere romper guerra conV- MagJ y assistir a su hermano para los negocios de los Payses Bajos, ella declararia a Alen^on por here- dero deste Reyno en virtud del con- sentimiento que en un Parliamento le dieron de aceptar por tal & cual- quiera que ella sefialase. Entiendo que el de Leicester tieiie la mira de casar su hijo con la nieta de la Con- desa de Shrewsbury, juzgando los mejores letrados y mas cuerdos que en defecto de la Reyna de Escocia y su hijo es la mas propinqua he- redera de todos.' Mendoza al Rey, 1 6 Deciembre : MSS. Simancas.