Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/449

 1566.] THE MURDER OF DARNLEY. 429 her rival's loyalty and of the triumph of tnose great principles of English freedom for which she had fought her long, and as it now seemed, her losing battle. The Queen of S(^is_.]iaji_halLeiigejl her crown, intrigued wit her subjects, slighted her councils, and defied her menaces, and this. was the result. But Elizabeth had been apprenticed in self-control. By morning she had overcome her agitation and was able to give Melville an audience. The ambassador entered her presence radiant with triumph. The Queen affected, perhaps she forced her- self to feel, an interest in his news, and she allowed him to jest upon the difficulty with which the prince had been brought into the world. ' I told her/ he re- ported afterwards, 1 ' that the Queen of Scots had dearly bought her child, being so sore handled that she wished she had never been married. This I said by the way to give her a scare from marriage and from Charles of Austria.' Elizabeth smiled painfully and spoke as graciously as she could, though Melville believed that at heart she was burning with envy and disappointment. The trial was doubtless frightful, and the struggle to brave it may have been but half successful ; yet when he pressed her to delay the recognition no longer she seemed to feel that she could not refuse, and she pro- mised to take the opinion of the lawyers without fur- ther hesitation. So great indeed had been the dis- appointment of English statesmen at the last trifling 1 MELVILLE'S Memoirs.