Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/174

154 possession of the situation. He had the organized military force of the kingdom at his disposal, which was at this time considerable. The fleet, the arsenals, the fortresses, the treasury were all in his hands; and he might count with certainty on the support of France, which would be only too happy to prevent the Crown of England from falling to so close a connection of the Emperor.

These considerations (and there were others, perhaps, which we do not know) might have seemed to the most calculating statesman to offer a reasonable chance of success. A desperate man, with ruin staring him in the face if he left events to take their course—with power for himself and the kingdom for his family if he tried fortune and found her favourable—would have thrown the hazard with far lighter grounds of hope. The Duke waited, however, before he moved—before, probably, he took his own final resolution—till it became quite certain that Edward could not recover.

The prospect of Mary becoming Queen was naturally raising the spirits of the Imperialists. Boisdaulphin, with Noailles, who had just arrived, was correspondingly anxious; Scheyfne, they saw, was 'not asleep;' and on the 4th of May they pressed for a private interview with the Duke. They had been long anxious, they said, to be admitted to the King's presence. They had been answered that his illness made it impossible for him to receive them; but in the mean time the longer they were kept from the Court, the more significant of the approaching attitude of England their