Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/436

 422 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. - [011.56 The reason was not far to seek for. The succession to the crown was still undetermined. The religious differences, which would have died away with an ascer- tained future, had been aggravated by the uncertainty. The marriage of the Queen, so naturally and justly de- sired, was still in the clouds, the value of it as a means of providing an heir to the crown was sinking to zero w r ith her advancing years, and the experience of the last session might well make her unwilling to encounter another while still unprovided with a husband. If the dread of a disputed succession secured to the Queen of Scots, notwithstanding her crimes, the tacit or avowed support of the great conservative party, her claims on the consideration of Parliament, had she come upon it with clean hands, would have been altogether irresistible. Her friends would have said to Elizabeth, ' We can bear our uncertainties no longer. Here by the laws of blood is your undoubted heir, bred from a marriage con- trived by your grandfather to unite this island under one head, and bringing Scotland in her hand as her dowry. Would you have married as we desired, and as you promised, you might have had children of your own, and one and all of us would have been true to you and yours. But you have played with the princes of Chris- tendom till you have offended them all and have left us without an ally in the world. You are thirty-eight years old, and you have no husband, no child, nor likelihood of child. Our lives, our properties, our national independence are at stake, and we will bear it no longer. It is true that the Queen of Scots when in