Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/406

 39 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 66. which she had advanced to Alencon, or she calculated interest against him. by tables of her own, as she had done against the States. Segur at any rate insisted that she had lent his master but sixty thousand crowns. Elizabeth said that he owed her three hundred thousand. Segur demanded either that the diamonds should be given up to him or that they should be valued and that she should let his master have the surplus. Elizabeth contended that there was no surplus, that the diamonds were hers, and that she would keep them. 1 The friend- ship of the King of Navarre, as M. Segur well said to Burghley, was of more importance to her than a thou- sand diamonds ; at least, he said, she ought to be con- tented with her lawful debt without extorting five times the amount of it. He left England in supreme indig- nation, and before long the Queen found reason to re- consider the wisdom of what she was doing. A letter of extravagant flattery from the King of Navarre to her in the following December, shows that, as far as he was concerned, she had repented of her sharp practice. 2 Guise meanwhile, himself chafing with eagerness, 1 ' Au lieu de cela sa Ma te se laisse persuader qu'elles sont engagecs pour deux cent cinquante ou trois cent mille escus, et le Eoy de Navarre croit qu'elles ne sont tenues que pour cinquante ou soixante mille. Voila pourquoy j'escri a sa Ma" a ce qu'il luy plaise faire averer pour combien elles sont engagees, a fin que le sa- chant j'en donne avis au Eoy de Navarre, qui trouvera moyens de les desengager ; ou si la lieyue les veut retenir, je la supplie les vouloir faire priser et m'en vouloir faire delivrer le surplus de la juste valeur des- dictes bagues que le Roy de Navarre entend estre employe comme le rcste qu'il a entre mes mains pour la con- servation de 1'Eglise de Dieu.' Segur to Burghley, October 9 19 : MSS. France. 2 The King of Navarre to Eliza- beth. December, 1583 : MSS. Ibid.