Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/343

 1 5 70.] EXCOMMUNICA TION OF E LIZ ABE TH. 329 the Duke of Norfolk is at liberty, which is the best news I have heard this twelve months ; and unless it had been the Queen of Scots' restitution, or that the Queen of England had gone ad Patres, ye could not have sent me any word whereat I would have been more glad. I hope to Gfod since that has come to pass, the rest shall follow shortly. When ye write the Queen of England gives you good words, ye do well to make semblant to believe her, and to hope for goodness at her hands, but on my peril in your heart trust never word she speaks, for ye shall find all plain craft with- out true meaning. Always continue in the treaty until the untruth appears of itself. You desire my opinion what is to be answered to the demand of the Prince, some of the nobility for hostages, and the castle of Dumbarton. I will write you frankly what I think. The Queen of Scots is in the Queen of England's hands, and I think she intends never with her goodwill to part from her, and therefore to satisfy other princes proposes the harder conditions which she thinks shall be refused. It is for the Queen of Scots hard to deliver her son in England, and it is hard for Scotland to have our principal strengths in the hands of England. Yet rather than the Queen of Scots should remain still a prisoner, the conditions cannot be so hard that at length I would stick upon to recover her liberty ; for if that point were once compassed, other things may be helped again with time. It is well done for the Queen of Scots to make difficulty that the Prince be delivered in England,