Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/186

 1 66 CHAPTER XLIIL THE EMBASSY OF DE S1LVA. THE policy of Elizabeth towards the French Protest- ants had not been successful. Had her assistance been moderately disinterested she would have secured their friendship, and at the close of the eight years, fixed by the Treaty of Cambray for the restoration of Calais, she would have experienced the effects of their gratitude. By the forcible retention of Havre after the civil war was ended she had rekindled hereditary animo- sities ; she had thrown additional doubt on her sincerity as a friend of the Reformation ; she had sacrificed an English army, while she had provided the French Go- vernment with a fair pretext for disowning its obliga- tions, and was left with a war upon her hands from which she could hardly extricate herself with honour. A fortnight before Havre surrendered, the Prince of Conde had offered, if she would withdraw from it, that the clause in the Treaty of Cambray affecting Calais should be reaccepted by the King of France, the Queen- mother, the Council, the Noblesse, and the Parliament.