Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/46

 3<5 REtGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. the minds of many ; ' l and half of those who in January would have welcomed the English as allies, in March would have encountered them as their ' auld enemies.' Huntingdon still longed to go forward. The Douglases could be counted on at all events ; the cause was God's, and God would fight for justice. But influences were at work with Elizabeth which made Huntingdon a special object of suspicion. The French ambassador had protested, under directions from Paris, against English interference in Scotland. Burghley told him that France was as much interested as England in sup- pressing Lennox, who was entirely Spanish ; that the party now in power about James intended to send him to Madrid, where he was to be made a Catholic of and married, and that Spain would then give the law to the world. The ambassador, scarcely knowing whether to believe Burghley or not, advised Elizabeth to end her difficulties not by taking part with Morton, but by making . friends with Mary Stuart. He told her that by recog- nizing the Queen of Scots as her successor, she might secure herself from danger either from Scotland or the Continent ; while he dwelt on the danger of intrusting Huntingdon with an army, who was her most formidable competitor, considering the temper of the Puritans, of whom he was the leader and idol, and their notorious objection to female sovereigns. This chord never failed to wake a response in Elizabeth. The Puritans, whatever their abstract theories about monarchy, were passionately Bowes to "Walsingham, February 24 : MSS. Scotland.