Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/314

 494 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.44. Queen of Scots amidst the most influential classes of the people. The settlement of the succession was a passion among them which amounted to a disease ; while tho union of the crowns was an object of rational desire to every thoughtful English statesman. The Protestants were disheartened ; they had gained no wisdom by suffering ; the most sincere among them were as wild and intolerant as those who had made the reign of Edward a by- word of mismanagement ; the Queen was as unreasonable with them on her side as they were TX- travagant on theirs ; while Catholicism, recovering from its temporary paralysis, was reasserting the superiority which the matured creed of centuries has a right to claim over the half- shaped theories of revolution. Had Mary Stuart followed the advice which Alva gave to her messenger at Bayonne, had she been prudent and for- bearing and trusted her cause to time till Philip had disposed of the Turks and was at leisure to give her his avowed support, the game was in her hands. Her choice of Darnley, sanctioned as it was by Spain, had united in her favour the Conservative strength of England ; and either Elizabeth must have allowed the marriage and accepted the Queen of Scots as her successor, or she must have herself yielded to pressure, fulfilled her promises at last, and married the Archduke Charles. This possibility and this alone created Mary's diffi- culties. She knew what Philip's engagements meant ; she knew that Spain desired as little as France to see England and Scotland a united and powerful kingdom ; and that if Elizabeth could be recalled out of her evil