Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/245

 1564.] THE EMBASSY OF DE S1LYA. 225 that, that some are well willing to leave their country, others with their force to withstand it, the rest with patience to endure it and let God work His will.' Mail land seems to have believed that Mary .Stuart would be moderate and reasonable even if she was recognized unconditionally arid was left to choose her own husband ; he professed to imagine that some ' liberty of religion ' could be established in the modern and at that time impossible sense in which wolf and dog, Catholic and Protestctut, could live in peace to- gether, neither worried nor worrying each other. But few of the serious Reformers shared his hope ; and a gajp_was already opening wide between him and the Earl of Murray-. Maitland was inclined to press Eng- land ' to the uttermost ; ' Randolph, in a private con- versation with Murray, ' found in that nobleman a mar- vellous good will ' to be guided by Elizabeth, although he was disturbed by the conflict of duties. The Earl, as the meeting of the commissioners approached, in his perplexity sent Elizabeth a message, ' that whatever he might say, or however vehement he might seem to be in his mistress's cause, he hoped her Majesty would not take it as if he was in any way wanting in devotion to her.' Both Murray and Randolph were nervously con- scious of their incapacity to cope with Maitland in a diplomatic encounter. ' To meet with such a match,' Randolph wrote to Elizabeth, ' your Majesty knoweth what wits had been fit. How far he exceedeth the compass of one or two heads that is able to govern a Queen and guide a whole VOL. VII. 15