Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/228

 208 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43 September. less implacable. An opportunity was offered for re- opening the suit, and Cecil, by the Queen's order, sent a message through Mundt the English agent in Germany, to the new Emperor Maximilian, that although for his many excellent qualities the Queen would gladly have married Lord Robert Dudley, yet, finding it impossible, she had brought herself to regard Lord Robert as a brother, and for a husband was thinking of the Arch- duke. 1 On the 1 2th of September a resolu- tion of council was taken to send an embassy to Vienna, ostensibly to congratulate Maximilian on his accession in reality to feel the way towards ' the prince with the large head/ 2 A few days later, during an evening stroll through St James's Park, Elizabeth herself told the secret to de Silva, not as anything certain, but as a point towards which her thoughts were turning. 3 The Queen of Scots meantime, to whom every uttered thought of Elizabeth was known, began to re- pent of her precipitate explosion of temper. She had obtained what she immediately desired in the return of 1 Cecil to Mundt, September 8, 1 564 : Jussu Regina. Burghley Papers, HAINES, vol. i. 2 l Some one is to be sent with condolences on the death of the Emperor Sir H. Sidney or Sir N. Throgmorton or 1 or Lord Robert ; which it shall be I think nobody yet knoweth. But to tell you the truth, there is more meant than condolence or congratulation. It may be an intention for the marriage with the Archduke. This may be very strange, and therefore I pray you keep it very close.' Cecil to Sir T. Smith, September 12, 1564: WRIGHT, vol. i. 3 De Silva to the Duchess of Parma, Sept. 23 : MS. Simancas. Elizabeth said that the Court fool advised her to have nothing to do with Germans, who were a poor heavy-headed set.