Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/41

 1561.] THE ENGLISH A T HA VRE. 21 Finally, in 1562, the Bishop of Carlisle once more complained that between Lord Dacres and the Earls of Cumberland and Westmoreland, ' Gfod's glorious gospel could not take place in the counties under their rule.' The few Protestants * durst not be known for fear of a shrewd turn ; ' and the lords and magistrates looked through their fingers while the law was openly defied. The country was full of ' wishings and wagers for the alteration of religion ; ' ' rumours and tales of the Spaniards and Frenchmen to come in for the reform- ation of the same:' while the articles of the secret league between the Guises and Spain for the extirpation of heresy circulated in manuscript in the houses of the northern gentlemen. 1 The Queen's own conduct had been so uncertain, she had persisted so long in her determination to invite the Queen of Scots into England, svith a view of acknow- ledging her in some form or other as her successor, she had given so marked an evidence of her retrogressive tendencies in appointing these very Earls of Westmore- land and Cumberland to receive Mary Stuart on the Border, that no one ventured to support a spiritual authority which in a year or two might vanish like a mist. And it was not till Elizabeth had been driven at last into the French quarrel, had given up the inter- view, and had sent her troops to Havre to co-operate with the Huguenots, that the reforming party recovered heart again ; and the Romanists discovered that unless 1 Domestic M'SS.* vol xxi.