Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/493

 1584] THE BOND OF ASSOCIATION. 477 actions of Elizabeth.. The circumstances of her situa- tion, her sex, and the temper that was born with her, bespeak forbearance, which it is just, if it be difficult, to extend towards her. To keep France divided from Spain, and if possible entangle them in war again ; to encourage the Huguenots, when the French Crown in- clined towards Popery ; to protract the struggle in the Netherlands ; to sow division between Mar}'- Stuart and James, and to array the Scotch Commons against them both ; to hold the English succession undetermined, that all parties and all competitors might be dependent on her pleasure, and therefore remain on their good be- haviour these were the aims of her diplomacy ; and she pursued them through promises as loosely broken as they were heedlessly made, and through a consistent series of deceptions, which, if pursued for a personal object, would have been called detestable treachery. Many times it seemed as if the game was played out, as if France was weary of being trifled with, and the Scotch Protestants of being made use of and sacri- ficed. Eather perhaps her statecraft was of little service to her at all. Her two main external supports were the long-inherited jealousy between the leading Catholic Powers, and the spirit which had been kindled in the Scots and the Netherlanders. She owed her safety to caiises which existed independently of herself and her politics, and her artifices rather impaired than strengthened them. Scotland and the Low Countries were England's vulnerable points. If Scotland was in the hands of the