Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/250

 230 RE TON OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. making a party amongst the lords ; and Darnley's eleva- tion to the Crown of Scotland would wake a 'thousand sleeping feuds. The requested permission was suspended without being refused ; while Elizabeth began again as usual to play with thoughts of the Archduke. Cecil sent to Germany to urge Maximilian to propose in form for her hand ; l while stranger still, Catherine de Medici meditated an alliance between Elizabeth and her son Charles the Ninth. Elizabeth was twenty-nine and Charles not more than fourteen ; but political conveni- ence had overruled more considerable inequalities ; and though Elizabeth affected to laugh at the suggestion as absurd, de Silva reminded her that the difference of age was scarcely greater than that between Philip and her sister ; while the Queen-mother of France made the pro- posal, as will presently be seen, in perfect seriousness. 2 On their return to Edinburgh from Ber- December. . T T. ! -, .., wick, Maitland and Murray wrote a joint letter to Cecil, in which they recapitulated their arguments at the conference and put forward again the demand on be- half of their mistress with which Maitland had concluded. They dwelt on the marriages abroad which were offered to her acceptance far exceeding in general desirable- ness that which was proposed by Elizabeth. They ex- pressed themselves however deferentially, and professed a desire which both of them really felt for a happy ter- mination of the difficulty. Cecil's answer was straightforward, consistent, and 1 Boger Strange to Gaspar Prcgnyar, February i, 1565 : HAYNES, vol. i. 2 De Silva to Philip, October 9 : ,]/>'. Simancas.