Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/425

 15 7 1.] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 411 water English soil with. English blood. Not on such grounds as these should he have sought the overthrow of a Government, which, however grave its short- comings, was the mildest which England had known for many a century. He might sigh for the patriarchal days of feudalism, when the earls and dukes were local sovereigns, and no upstart commoner could stride before them on the road to power ; but there was little likeli- hood that the ancient order and reverence which he and his friends so much regretted, could be re-established by lying and treachery, or that a purer creed could be brought back into the Church, by placing Elizabeth's sceptre in the hands of Both well's paramour. There had been a time when Norfolk would not have required to be reminded of such common truths. He was not naturally mean or false. But the spell of the enchant- ment was upon him, and the woman, for whose sake he was fouling his hands with baseness, was intending secretly, when she had used his services, to dupe him at last out of his reward. Thus Eidolfi went ostensibly on Elizabeth's business to return if possible in the summer with the Spanish army, and Norfolk lay waiting in Howard House for the springing of the mine, while Mary Stuart corresponded with Elizabeth about the treaty as if her thoughts were absorbed in that and that only. She appealed from Elizabeth ill informed by her detractors to Elizabeth who would one day hear her defence ; she affected still to trust to the English Queen to prevent her title being meddled with by Parliament, and she swore that she