Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/499

1555.] they were going too far. The suggestion was listened to coldly; and Philip, who had really calculated on obtaining from Parliament, in some form or other, a security for his succession, despatched Ruy Gomez to Brussels, to consult the Emperor on the course which should be pursued. On the whole, however, could the bill of the House of Commons be carried, Renard was disposed to be contented; the Queen was confident in her hopes of an heir, and it might not be worth while to irritate the people unnecessarily about Elizabeth. The clause empowering Philip to govern by deputy in his absence was especially satisfactory.

But the peers, whom the Commons had refused to consult on the new form of the measure, would not part so easily with their own opinions; they adopted the phraseology of the Lower House, but this particular and precious feature in it they pared away. The bill, as it eventually passed, declared Philip Regent till his child should be of age, and so long as he continued in the realm; but, at the same time, fatally for the objects at which he was aiming, it bound him again to observe