Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/516

 500 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 67. Majesty and of such other as can look into the Scotch King's disposition.' 1 Other causes had combined to make a change in the Queen of Scots' position necessary. Hitherto, save at rare intervals, she had been treated as a guest rather than as a prisoner nor as a guest only, but as one who might at any moment become Sovereign of England. She had enjoyed whatever comforts and luxuries an English nobleman's country-seat could afford. She nad been in charge of a guardian who was himself al- most a Catholic ; and was notoriously favourable to aer pretensions. The Countess of Shrewsbury, an intriguing ambitious woman, had at first fawned upon her, flattered her, assisted her correspondence, and amused her with sarcastic gossip about Elizabeth and the Court. The birth of her grandchild, Lady Ara- bella, however had turned Lady Shrewsbury's aspira- tions into a new channel. Lady Arabella was now herself -a competitor for the crown. Leicester, who had inherited his father's ambition of establishing a Dudley dynasty, meditated a marriage for her with his son ; Lady Shrewsbury lent her aid to the scheme, and her attentions to Mary Stuart had been converted to envenomed hostility. No scandal was thenceforth too malignant for her poisonous tongue to circulate ; and, when her husband declined to enter into her projects, the domestic peace at Sheffield had come to a violent end. The children took part with their mother, the father 1 Sadler to "Walsingham, October 8 18: MSS. MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS.