Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/205



WAR which had exhibited at a critical time the military power of England, repaid its cost in an increase of security; yet, though osculating in separate points with the deeper impulses of the age, it remained as it began, substantially unconnected with those impulses. Beneath the contests of diplomatists, the movements of armies, and the clash of hostile fleets, the tide of inward revolution flowed on upon its separate course, and the conflict, so absorbing while it continued, was but an expensive accident in respect to the vital interests of the nation. The result of greatest importance had been the destruction of pleasant illusions. The conservatives, who had fixed their hearts on the alliance with the Emperor—the Protestants, who would unite the fortunes of the Anglican and German Reformation, had alike been disappointed. The Emperor might remain, while it suited his convenience, a political confederate; in his heart he belonged to the Papacy. The Lutherans, timid and irresolute, had first held out their hand, and had