Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/224

 ^16 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. party : but the Lords were to be used collectively as the Regent had been used before ; they were to give all and receive nothing. Randolph was told to urge them in the old tone, f to maintain religion/ ' to keep the Prince safe in Scotland, and admit no French troops among them ; ' if however they pressed to know in re- turn what. Elizabeth would do for them, he was forbid- den to commit her to anything. He was to give such a general answer ' as neither they should be discouraged with doubt of her favour, nor boldened to unreasonable and overhard demands/ 1 Had no principles been at work among the Scots which in some degree had neu- tralized Elizabeth's behaviour to them, she would have worn out their patience, and she would not have had a friend left to herself or England north of Tweed. The actual effect was more than sufficiently disastrous, and meanwhile she had to encounter the last phase of her own Northern Insurrection. The name of Leonard Dacres had appeared February. more than once in the examinations of the prisoners. The fugitives, in resentment at his apathy, had spoken freely of his previous connection with them, and their words had been carried to Berwick to Huns- don. Old Norton said that if the Queen knew the part which he had played, she would hang him sooner than any one ; a letter had been found upon a servant of the Bishop of Ross, in which he was compromised ; and Elizabeth, indignant at having been deceived by his Elizabeth to Sir R. Sadler, January 29 : MSS. Scotland.