Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/400

 3*6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 55. the despatch in which he described what had passed with saying, that if the Pope showed any intention of interfering actively he would find means to prevent him. But Philip was no longer to be left with his head run ostrich-like into the sand ; a parallel effort to move him was made simultaneously, through the Duchess of Feria, by the Bishop of Ross, who sent over 'to Spain, evidently for Philip's perusal, a long and curious ac- count of his mistress' positions and prospects. ' The life of the Queen of Scots,' the Bishop said, 'had been in great danger ; Bacon, Bedford, and Cecil had urged the Queen to put her to death ; and, of all the ministers whom Elizabeth admitted to her confidence, Leicester only had opposed her execution. A revolution in her favour might have been effected with ease, if the King of Spain would have raised a finger ; but the King of Spain had given no sign, all application to him for help had been so far received with coldness, and the Queen of Scots was now driven to entertain the question of a treaty. But the conditions offered to her were so in- tolerable, that she would not accept them till she was assured for the last time that she had nothing to hope for. She would rather die than be the cause of the con- tinued oppression of the Catholics ; her party was fall- ing to pieces, and unless the King helped her, she might consent to things which would cause her endless re- morse and do fatal inj ury to the Christian faith. If the persecutions continued, the spirit of the Catholics would be broken, and a revolution would then be impossible. Lord Seton had been three months at Brussels trying