Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/112

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 41. ominous centre round which the clouds were forming. Yet Elizabeth to the world appeared to be given up to amusement, caring for nothing but pleasure, and wasting her fondness upon idle and tawdry favourites. 'The Queen/ wrote Francis Chaloner to his brother, ' thinks of nothing but her love affairs ; she spends her days with her hawks and hounds and her nights in dances and plays. Though all things go ill with England she is incapable of serious thought. The Court is as merry as if the world were at our feet ; and the ingenious fool who can devise the best means of trifling away time is the man most admired and prized.' 1 Yet Elizabeth was but concealing her real nature behind a mask of levity. Her spirits rose with trouble, and her high qualities were never more thoroughly awake. Notwithstanding the struggle in Normandy, peace still existed in name between England and France ; but Catherine demanded as an indemnity for the aggression on French territory a formal surrender of the English claim on Calais. Elizabeth answered that she would brave all consequences before she would submit ' to that dishonour : y 2 and a declaration of war was daily ex- pected. Philip had offered to mediate, but with the key 1 ' Regina tota amoribus dedita ?st, venationibusque aucupiis choreis et rebus ludicris insumens dies noc- tesque ; nihil serio tractatur, quan- quam omnia adverse cedant ; tamen jocamur hie, perinde ac si orbera universum debellati fuerimus. Et qui plures nugandi modos ridicule studio excogitaverit, quasi vir summo pretio dignus suspicitur. Spanish MSS, 2 Elizabeth to Chaloner, Decem- ber, 1563 : MS. Ibid.