Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/457

 1 57I-] THE R1DOLFI CONSPIRACY. 444 Burghley himself with, the safety of the Crown, she permitted to drop. Possibly Elizabeth was wise. Many a wavering Catholic may have been won back to his allegiance who, had she passed the Bill, would have gone over to dis loyalty ; and although had she known all the truth she would have spared the Lords the compliments which she lavished upon them, yet there was true statesman- ship in her efforts to keep the peace among her subjects, and in her refusing to punish the Catholics for the act of the Pope until they had made it their own by actual treason. It was not, after all, by measures passed in Parliament that Elizabeth's crown was to be saved, and Cecil was working more effectually by other methods. It is time to return to Bidolfi and his mis- April, sion to the Pope and the King of Spain. Elizabeth, it has been seen, had replied to the com- missioners sent by Alva to treat for a settlement, that she would negotiate directly with his master. Sir Henry Cobham, Lord Cobham's brother, was despatched to Madrid with powers to come to terms with Philip ; while Ridolfi went ostensibly to Brussels, on Walsing- ham's recommendation, to make arrangements for the reopening of trade. The Duke of Alva had been long looking, as he said, for some ' ford ' by which to enter effectively into the English difficulty. He had failed to find one, and not- withstanding the stolen money, the wrongs, insults, violence, indignities to which Spain had been exposed since the quarrel, he was coming round to quiet me-