Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/331

 15 70. 1 EXCOMMUNICA TION OF E LIZ ABE TH. 317 anxious for haste. The new Regent and his friends were hoping that something might occur to change Elizabeth's purpose once more, Chatelherault and Mait- land waited for the result of their application to Alva. Maitland's heart was set steadily on one point to bring Elizabeth on her knees before his own mistress. If it could be accomplished by force, so much the better, but the treaty would be a road as sure, though less rapid, to the same end. He expected that the condi- tions would be strained in the hope that they might be rejected. If this was Elizabeth's purpose he meant to disappoint her by agreeing to everything however hu- miliating, being satisfied that when the Queen of Scots was once at liberty whatever engagements she might make would snap like rotten cords, He was staying through the summer and ^ autumn at Blair Athol, 1 recruiting his shaken health among the glens and mountains. Cultivated far beyond the wild men on whom he played as upon in- struments, Maitland would at any age of the world have been in the first rank of statesmen. He had little in him of high moral purpose in the technical sense of the words, but he was a passionate Scot, proud of his own intellect, and prouder of his country, to which he devoted himself with a tenacity of purpose that no temptation of private interest could affect. He remains with all his faults a person singularly interesting, and 1 Maitland was the Earl's brother-in-law.