Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/606

 590 PEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 67. all Scots between 16 and 60 to encounter the English. enemy. 1 Elizabeth wavered like an aspen ; one day Walsingham told Gray that all was well ; then Arran wrote her a lying letter and all was changed again. Ferny hurst was next offered as a victim ; Ferny hurst was too faithful to Mary Stuart ; and ' the King and Arran/ Wotton wrote, ' could be well contented he were hanged so that would satisfy.' 2 Fernyhurst should be sent to Carlisle if Angus and the Hamiltons were de- tained in England, and the League might then go for- ward as before. The Queen was disposed to agree. Wotton as violently objected : ' to trust now to the League/ he said, 'unless the Lords be restored, is to trust to a rotten staff/ which would be broken at the moment when it was most needed. The Queen, for once, felt the obligation of a promise. She said she had given her word to James that the Lords should be kept in England. Wotton insisted that James had broken faith first in releasing Arran ; want of resolution would ruin every- thing ; the Master of Gray would make his own terms, and ' then it would be too late to repent a lost oppor- tunity which would never again be offered : ' in a few days Scotland would be full of Frenchmen, and if the return of the Lords could be delayed for but a short time, the French party counted that the game was theirs. 3 September. 1 Wotton to "Walsingharn, Sep- tember 1323. 2 Wotton to Walsingham, Sep- tember 1828: MSS. Scotia/iff. 3 Wotton to Walsingham, Sep- tember 1828 : MSS. Ibid.