Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/68

 4 8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 41 She had probably nothing worse to accuse herself of than thoughtlessness ; and the truth might have been told without danger of compromising her. It is strange that Maitland, in a fear that it might affect the success of his mission, thought it worth his while to cover the story with an incredible lie. Maitland had two objects in London one, to secure the succession for his mistress by assuring Elizabeth that she had nothing to fear from so true a friend ; the other, to consult the Spanish am- bassador on the marriage with the Prince of Spain, which of all things on earth Elizabeth most dreaded for her. It was this last object chiefly which he thought the Chatelar affair might hinder ; he therefore told de Qua- dra that Chatelar before his death had declared that he had been employed by the Huguenots to compromise Mary Stuart's reputation ; he had concealed himself in her room, intending to be seen in leaving it, and then to escape. 1 Two days after Chatelar was executed Mary Stuart lost a far nobler friend. A pistol-ball fired from behind a hedge closed the career of the Duke of Guise under the walls of Orleans. The assassin Poltrot was a boy of nineteen. Suspicion pointed to the Admiral and Theodore Beza as the instigators of the crime ; and 1 'Las personas,' de Quadra adds, 'que le enviaron a esta tan gran traycion, dice Ledington que ban sido mas de una ; pero la que principalmente le dio la instruccion y elrecaudo fue Madame de Curosot.' De Quadra to Philip, March 28. Madame de Curosot was probahly Charlotte de Laval, the wife of the Admiral. This preposterous story passed current with the Spaniards, and reappears in a despatch of de Chantonnay to Philip. TEULET, vol. v. pp. 2, 3.