Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/522

502 the See of Rome was to be insisted upon; the Admiral of France held out more than hopes that, although not to be demanded as a preliminary, it would follow as a consequence. As before, when the Spanish treaty was in contemplation, there was a provision that Mary's illegitimacy should be corrected by Act of Parliament. The only point remaining to be settled, it seemed, was the dowry, and here no great difficulty was anticipated. But the shadowy nature of the prospect disclosed itself when the French ambassador communicated the expectation of his Government on the point of money. It was nothing more than a relmquishment of the entire arrears which were owing to England, and a transfer of the two pensions as a marriage portion to the Duke of Orleans.

Seeing that the sum so quietly asked for amounted to a million crowns, the pension to a hundred and fifty thousand annually, and that the largest dowry for which