Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/376

 362 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 55. and the conditions of the compact be thus made more beneficial to her Majesty and the realm.' 1 A marriage with a princess so publicly and recently excommunicated would for some time at least decide the character of the relations between France and Rome. An open quarrel and a consequent increase of favour for the Huguenots appeared certain to follow ; a war for the liberation of the Netherlands would come next ; and when the French Government had once broken with the Catholics, there would be little danger of the darker possibilities which had suggested them- selves. Elizabeth at first diffidently, and afterwards with seeming frankness, talked about the marriage to La Mothe, and gradually Catherine de Medici shook off her suspicions and began to hope that Elizabeth was in earnest. Leicester took credit for self-sacrifice in with- drawing his own pretensions ; and when the subject was to be seriously discussed, he himself introduced the ambassador to the Queen's private room at Hampton Court. Elizabeth, whom La Mothe found better dressed than usual for the occasion, 2 at once broke the ice. She said that circumstances obliged her to overcome her re- luctance to marry, and that she intended to select a husband from one of the reigning houses. La Mothe, 1 Commodities that may follow from the marriage with the Duke of Anjou, December, 1570. Notes on the Queen's marriage, January 14, 1571 : MSS. in Cecil's hand, abridged. France, Rolls Hotise. 2 ' Ou je la trouvay mieulx pareo quo de coustume.' La Mothe to the Queen- m other, December 2Q.