Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/465

 1584-] EXPULSION OF MENDOZA. 449 dead. She was eloquently pathetic about France. Then turning- upon Wade, she said that she had humbled her- self before Elizabeth into the very dirt, and had been cheated after all of her reward. ' I told her/ said Wade, ' her son's conduct was the cause, and it appeared that she had sought to amuse her Majesty with the treaty to give her son time to work that alteration : it was time for her Majesty to break off when the foundation failed/ Quoting the words once written with a diamond by Elizabeth on a window, when imprisoned by her sister, ' Much suspected by me, But nothing proved can be,' she ran fiercely over the story of her wrongs, 'using bitter speeches of her misery/ Wade replied that her treatment was regarded abroad ' as one of the rarest examples of singular mercy and good inclination that was ever heard of, considering the provocation her Majesty had received.' She flamed out at the word mercy. She said she was an absolute prince as much as her Majesty. She was no inferior of hers. She had been a Queen from her cradle, and had been afterwards ' Queen of France, the greatest realm in Christendom.' Mercy was for subjects ; for her there had been nothing but extremity. ' All this was said with extreme choler.' She cooled afterwards and became quieter, but there were three things she said which she would die a thousand deaths rather than allow to be sacrificed her honour, her in- terest in the English succession, and her child. VOL. XI. 29