Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/404

384 broken. James answered that the time named was too early for his convenience, and that York was too distant from his frontier. As if purposely to expose the shallowness of both pretences, when September came, he sailed away to France to meet another sovereign, to choose a bride where England least desired, and to proclaim his contemptuous indifference by marrying in silence, without caring to send to London even the ordinary communications of courtesy.

The uncertain prince had taken his part, as it seemed, finally with the Catholics; and he chose a time for the decisive rupture with Henry when the insurrection was blazing through the northern counties, and when Pole's mission was in contemplation to France and Flanders. He lingered at the Court of Francis for many months. On the 1st of January Magdalen de Valois became Queen of Scotland at Notre Dame. On Christmas-eve the sword and cap were consecrated at St Peter's. In this miserable result the forbearance of twenty years, through unexampled provocation, had at length concluded.

Meanwhile the queen-mother was reaping the harvest of her own folly. There had been a moment when it rested with her to have anticipated the union of the kingdoms, and to have coloured (it is impossible to conjecture how deeply) the complexion of their fortunes. Had she played her part, the marriage would have been arranged between James and Mary. An Act of Parliament would have declared them, should no male heir be born to the King, joint inheritors