Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/519

 1584-] THE BOND OF ASSOCIA TION. heaped on Shrewsbury if he would have allowed him- self to be corrupted ; and the position in which he had been placed, at once as the host and as the gaoler of the heir-presumptive to the crown, would have been impossible save to the most simple-hearted loyalty. Elizabeth received him with some badinage, asking him how he had left his Queen. He said he had no Queen but her Majesty ; if her Majesty distrusted him he begged her to relieve him of his charge. She said she had spoken but in jest ; there was not one of her subjects whom she esteemed more highly. But in con- adoration of what had passed she told him that some change had been made necessary. She gave him a com- mand in Lancashire which would separate him at once from his Countess and his prisoner ; and, in kissing hands, he thanked her for delivering him from two devils. 1 For the Queen of Scots the impression at the mo- ment was that her detention in England was to end. Sir Ralph Sadler and Mr Somers took temporary charge of her at Lord Shrewsbury's house, while preparations were made to proceed at once with the treaty. Her French secretary, Nau, was allowed to go to London to represent her wishes to the council, who were now all but unanimous that the time for an arrangement had come. Elizabeth, though she had not yet parted with Arran, and intended still to use the son against the mother and the mother against the son, yet said in 1 ' For habcllc librado de dos Diablos, quc eran la Reyna de Esco- cia y su muger.' Avisos tic Ingla- terra, 1929 de Setiembre ; TEO- LET, vol. v.