Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/454

434 solution except by the sword; and if the English felt 110 absolute satisfaction in seeing two powers crippling each other's strength, who, a few months previously, were in league for their own ruin, the Government at least saw no reason to co-operate with either side, in a cause which did not concern them, or assist in bringing a dispute to a close which had broken out so opportunely for themselves.

Meanwhile the probabilities of a reunion with Rome had for a moment brightened. It was stated in the last chapter that, on the discovery of the adulteries of the Queen, a panic arose among the Reformers, lest the King should regard her crime as a judgment upon the divorce, and in the sudden revulsion retrace his steps. It was seen, too, that after her punishment their fears were allayed by an Act of Parliament against the Papal usurpations, the most emphatic which had yet been passed, and that the country settled back into an equilibrium of permanent hostility to the See of Rome. There are circumstances remaining to be explained both with respect to the first alarm and to the statute by which it was dispelled.

The partial advances which had been made by the Pope had been neither accepted nor rejected, when, on the 20th of May, a courier from England brought the news of Anne's misdemeanours to Rome. The consistory would have been more than mortal if they had not been delighted. From the first they had ascribed the King's conduct to the infatuating beauty of Catherine's rival. It was she who,