Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/208

 i88 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. ferential and seeming reluctance, to obtain the long-de- sired recognition. Once married to Darnley and ad- mitted by Parliament as heir-presumptive, her course would then be easy. At the bottom of her heart she had determined that she would never cease to be Eliza- beth's enemy ; never for a moment had she parted with the conviction that the English crown was hers, and that Elizabeth was a usurper. But without support from abroad she was obliged to trust to her address ; could she win her way to be ' second person/ and were she married with Elizabeth's consent to the favourite of the insurrectionary Catholics, she could show her colours with diminished danger ; she could extort concession after concession, make good her ground inch by inch and yard by yard, and at lasl, when the favourable moment came, seize her rival by the throat and roll her from her throne into the dust. Elizabeth had offered her the choice of any English nobleman. Darnley's birth and person marked him out as the one on whom her choice, if anywhere, might naturally be expected to rest. It was with some expectation of hearing his name at least as one among others that she at last pressed Elizabeth to specify the person whom she had in view for her. It was with some real and much affected surprise that she found the name when it came at last to be that of Lord Robert Dudley and of Lord Robert Dudley alone. Randolph conveyed Elizabeth's wishes to her, and with "them a distinct promise that as Dudley's wife the Queen of England would have her named as successor.