Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/441

 1584-] EXPULSION OF MENDOZA. 425 was now threatened. There was a large peace party in Holland, which, if Antwerp fell and Parma gained a footing among the Islands, would immediately make it- self felt. ' A general revolt ' was not impossible while Elizabeth was haggling ; and as ' a long and severe war,' in the opinion of all intelligent people, was hang- ing inevitably over England, the narrowest prudence recommended her to strike in before the States were further weakened and disheartened. 1 Nor was this her only or her most pressing peril. The irony of fate had flung on Elizabeth, who disdained the name of Protestant, the task of defending the Re- formation in the countries where Protestantism was most pronounced. The prim, self- satisfied Anglo-Catholic prided himself on the gulf of separation which divided him from the Calvinist. The Anglo- Catholic had his Apostolic succession, his episcopate, and his sacraments. He fasted twice in the week, he gave tithes of all that he possessed. He was not as Knox or Beza, and was clamorous in his demand to be distinguished from them. He was a thing of vapour, but he depended for his existence on the Protestantism which he despised. Eli- zabeth had been taught already, and the lesson was to be repeated till it was learnt, that the cause of the Ee- le Prince d' Orange hors du Pays, et accorderont avcc le Roy d'Espaignc, car ils ne vouldront point combattre comme ils ont faict cy-devant.' MS. endorsed by Burgliley, 'Advice to make an army in Brabant, May, 1584:' MSS. Holland. 1 ' Si les malcontents ou Ics Es- pagnols, par subtilite, ou par gaigner aulcuns Seigneurs ou Capitains, pren- nent deux ou trois villes, soit en Holland ou Zealand, il est a craindre ainsy que Ton cognoit bien ceux de Holland, non pas les Seigneurs mais le comivn peuple, qu'ils feront sortir