Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/187

 1 564. ] THE E MB ASS V OF DE SIL VA. 1 67 She had angrily and contemptuously refused ; and now with crippled finances, with trade ruined, with the necessity growing upon her, as it had grown upon her sister, of contracting loans at Antwerp, her utmost hope was to extort the terms which she had then rejected. Unable to maintain a regular fleet at sea she had let loose the privateers, whose exploits hereafter will be more particularly related. In this place it is enough to say that they had found in the ships of Spain, Flanders, or even of their own country, more tempting booty than in the coasting traders of Brittany. English merchants and sailors were arrested in Spanish harbours and imprisoned in Spanish dungeons in retaliation for ' depredations committed by the adventurers ; ' while a bill was presented by the Madrid Government of two million ducats for injuries inflicted by them on Spanish subjects. 1 In vain Philip struggled to avoid a quarrel with Elizabeth ; in vain Elizabeth refused to be the champion of the Reformation : the animosities of their subjects and the necessity of things were -driving them forward towards the eventually inevitable breach. Mary Stuart was looking to the King of Spain and the King of Spain to Mary Stuart, each as the ally de- signed by Providence for the other ; and the English Government in this unlucky war with France was quarrelling with the only European power which, since the breach of Henry the Eighth with the Papacy, had been cordially its friend. The House of Guise was 1 Reasons for a peace with France, March 10, 1564: French MSS. Rolls Home.