Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/393

 1571- ] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 379 before the Conference opened she had written to the Archbishop of Glasgow to bid him stir the King of France in her favour. 1 A few weeks before, Anjou had all but proposed for her hand. The French Court still professed the most ardent desire to help her, and La Mothe appeared to be working heartily with the Bishop of Ross. Suddenly, with overwhelming surprise, she learnt that her false lover was going over to the Eng- lish Queen ; that a marriage between them was seriously contemplated, and that the fault would not be tyith Charles or Catherine if Anjou did not soon become the husband of Elizabeth. She perhaps might be kept in hand as a reserve card, if the other game was a failure ; but her proud blood boiled at the indignity. That so detestable an alternative could be even con- templated by the French Court, at once convinced her that it was idle to hope that the Queen-mother would really move for her. She had been hitherto embar- rassed by the jealousies of the Great Powers. They woidd not act for her together, and if she threw herself upon one, she would offend the other. This difficulty was now at an end. Her hope, if hope she had, was in Spain and in the Pope. To them the ill-omened union between Huguenot France and Protestant England would be as unwelcome as to herself; and, in his own defence, Philip would take up her cause at last. Stung to fury by this unlooked-for blow, she watched with impatience the lingering of the treaty, which now 1 Mary Stuart to the Archbishop of Glasgow, January i : LABANOFF, vol. iii.