Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/443

 1584.] EXPULSION Of MENDOZA. 427 would be insisted on James was not a youth who would lose a crown for a confession of faith but Philip would have the controlling voice ; he knew that Philip did not like him ; and a conversion after the event might not be accepted. In Scotland, also, it was no less clear that on his mother's elevation he would have to descend to the position of a subject. He had broken with Eliza- beth ; he had refused her pension, and turned his back upon her minister ; yet he did not wish absolutely to quarrel with her. He wished so to act that whatever happened, and whichever party was uppermost, he should himself still be the winner. He dared not at once declare himself a Catholic, for the Catholics might fail after all, and then he would be ruined. He wished to avoid committing himself, and yet to secure the Catholic support. He was now not perfectly sure that he wished Guise to come over at all ; but if he came it was all important that he should come first to Scotland. His position was a very difficult one. The cunning which he displayed was altogether beyond his age, and must be attributed to the counsels of the Earl of Arran. The arrest and confession of Throgmorton having disarranged for the moment the plan for invading Eng- land, he sent off Seton to Paris to see Guise, and tell him that Scotland was still at his service; and by Seton's hands he sent two letters, one to his cousin, and the other through his cousin to the Pope. To Guise he wrote that, following his advice, he had now thoroughly espoused his mother's cause, and had separ-