Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/463

 tc8 4 .] EXPULSION OF MENDOZA. 447 assured otherwise of Scotland, she would care for no Power in Christendom. 1 But Elizabeth could not afford to quarrel with France, and Catherine and Henry were equally con- cerned in preventing a revolution which would make over England and Scotland to Guise and Philip. Per- mission therefore was given to Mauvissiere to go down and do his best in Scotland ; the treaty, which had be- come almost a jest, was reopened with Mary Stuart, and the Queen of England appeared once more in the po- sition of a suitor to her prisoner. So abrupt a change of attitude could hardly be exe- cuted without ungracefulness. The Paris conspirators had avowedly calculated on the support of Lord Shrews- bury : he was expected if not to join the insurrection, which was to break out on Guise's landing, at least to secure the safety of his charge ; and in the short inter- val, when a bold course was half resolved on, the removal of the Queen of Scots into the custody of some firmer person, had been part of the general scheme. Elizabeth herself had informed Shrewsbury of Throgmorton's con- fessions, and of the double part which she had ascer- tained that the Queen of Scots had been playing. 2 She had sent the Queen of Scots a threatening message, that she must abandon conspiracies if she ever hoped for favour. Sir Ralph Sadler had been selected as her 1 Mauvissiere to the King, April 26 May 6 : TEULET, vol. iii. 2 Elizabeth to the Earl of Shrews- j bury, March 8 18; MSS. MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS.