Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/349

 1583.] THE JESUITS IN SCOTLAND. 333 securities for her at her own instance, they would be unlikely to move actively again in her favour ; but she and they would exchange a precarious hope for a moder- ate certainty, and the treaty would amount to an ac- quiescence in her future claim on the succession. Elizabeth admitted that these proposals were now all that she could wish. She suggested some additions, as, for instance, that the Queen of Scots should pay her own expenses out of her French dowry ; but she did not insist on it, and she held out hopes that something now would be really done. But it seemed as if her main object was satisfied, when she had induced both James and Mary Stuart to show their hands. When a decision became necessary, as usual, she was incapable of the act of will which would incline the wavering balance. She found that in a treaty she must recognize Mary Stuart as a Queen a Queen in some sense or other and to recognize her in any sense would threaten the internal peace of Scotland. The very intimation that she was likely to be set at liberty set every Scottish household in vibration. Walsingham bade Bowes feel the tempers of the leading politicians. ' If,' he said, ' the Queen of Scots' offers were accompanied with good meaning, with the cautions and restrictions proposed, he saw no inconvenience, but rather profit, likely to ensue from her liberty.' The doubt was of her sincerity. It was hard to obtain ' an impartial opinion ' about her, ' the love and hatred that was borne her being either in the extremest degree.' 'It had been debated,' Wal- singham said, ' whether she was to be sent to Scotland,