Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/462

 448 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56. Majesty's decision whatever it be, and that he must leave the execution of the enterprise to those who are to act in it. ' His Holiness sent some one here a while ago to press these English matters upon me. I said then that he ought not to believe that the thing was as easy as the English Catholics pretended. The difficulty was not so much in the enterprise itself as in the impossi- bility of any common understanding about it between your Majesty and the French. If his Holiness could have prevailed on France to leave all to us, your Majesty could at least have compelled that Queen to set the Queen of Scots at liberty, you would have provided her with a Catholic husband, and would have opened a way for the restoration of religion. I thought then that his Holiness might do something in this way if he would proceed with the necessary discretion, but I have told Don Juan to say that now it had better be left alone. Nothing which the Pope can do at present will produce good; so far from it, if a hint of what is intended reach the French Court, all will be ruined. ' But to come to details. Certain points are clear : the unhappy condition of the Queen of Scots, the ill- usage of herself and her friends, the obligation which rests on your Majesty to make an effort for the restora- tion of the faith in those islands, and the injuries which your Majesty and your subjects have sustained from the Queen of England injuries which will not be redressed as long as she continues on the throne. ' All these things may be set right through the