Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/60

40 The prosecution was temporarily interrupted by the arrival and entertainment in London of Mary of Guise, on her route from France to Scotland; and, at the same time, by an invitation from Maurice and the other Protestant princes, to join in the great enterprise about to be attempted against the Emperor. But the pageant of a royal entertainment was soon over, and Warwick and his friends were too deeply disloyal to the cause of which they were so loud professors, to join in a religious confederacy. Their own idea of foreign policy was the balance of power, which no other object, divine or human, ought to derange; and the Germans were put off with an evasive answer, and at last with an equivalent to a refusal. Northumberland's attention was demanded for a more serious object.