Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/348

 332 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. undertake for him ; but if the Queen wished, she would send to Scotland for the necessary powers. She ac- cepted Beale's version of her promises as accurate, and repeated them as exactly and concisely as language would allow. She bound herself never to trouble Eliza- beth more with pretensions to the crown ; never to com- municate with Jesuits or conspirators ; and to leave the succession after the Queen's death to be decided by the English Parliament. She undertook never to meddle with the established religion. She declared herself willing to remain in England as an evidence of her good faith, and to take an oath in the House of Lords, if the Queen wished it, to observe the treaty. The Kings of France and Spain, the Duke of Lorraine, the Duke of Guise, would together be securities for her good behaviour. She would live in any castle or park which Elizabeth might be pleased to assign to her, and some nobleman or gentleman in the neighbourhood might be appointed to keep an eye over her actions ; while for herself she would promise never to go more than ten miles from the place of her abode. 1 These conditions were very much what Mendoza had sketched out for her. She was not to be credited with having abandoned any one of her purposes : but liberty was sweet, and relief by revolution was long in coming. The Catholic powers would gladly welcome a release from their responsibilities in an arrangement with which she could profess herself satisfied, and if they became 1 Proceedings with the Queen of Scots, May 24 and June 2, 1583 : MSS. MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS.