Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/215

 1 564.] THE E MB ASS Y OF DE SIL VA. 1 95 failure of all the attempts to reconcile the two Queens. Why Lennox should be prevented from returning when Elizabeth herself had supported his suit, he professed himself unable to understand. The conduct of the Eng- lish Court was a mystery to him, and ' he much feared that God, by the ingratitude of both the nations being provoked to anger, would not suffer them to attain so great worldly felicity as the success of the negotiation ' for the union. 1 On these terms stood Elizabeth and Mary June. Stuart in the beginning of June, when the new Spanish ambassador, Don Diego Guzman de Silva, arrived in London. De Silva, though a more honour- able specimen of a Castilian gentleman, was far inferior to de Quadra in ability for intrigue ; yet he was a man who could see clearly and describe intelligibly the scenes in the midst of which he lived ; and his de- spatches are more pleasing and, under some aspects, more instructive than the darker communications of his predecessor. In the following letters he tells the story of his re- ception at Elizabeth's Court, where, the curtain being once more lifted, Lord Robert Dudley is still seen at his old game, professing at home an increasing attachment to the Reformation, abroad maintaining an agent at the Vatican, and declaring himself to Philip the most de- voted servant of Rome. 1 Maitland to Cecil, June 6, June 23, and July 13 : Scotch MSS. Rolls House.