Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/486

 472 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.56. nobles had mass in their houses, the Queen shutting her eyes to it. The ambassador could accommodate Mon- sieur at his chapel, or if the worst came to the worst he could cross the Channel now and then to Boulogne : Philip when he wished to be devout withdrew from Madrid to Segovia, and Boulogne was at least as easy of access from London ; nay, as Monsieur would not be called on to declare himself a Protestant, the Pope might be brought to give a dispensation to secure a titular Catholic husband for the heretical Queen. 1 To the English ministers on the other June. hand the Duke's request was so modest that it did not seem worth disputing; he asked only, like the Archduke, to have a priest now and then privately in his closet ; the people should neither see him nor hear of him, and in public he would appear in church with the Queen. Cecil's Protestantism was above suspicion, and Cecil saw no reason to refuse so slight a favour. It was but too obvious that the nominal obstacle was not the real one. The French Government sug- gested that the religious question should stand over for a time, and that the other conditions of the mar- riage should be arranged first. Cecil, anxious to do anything that would help things forward, entered upon them with the Queen. He met at first with the coldest discouragement. She clung convulsively to her objec- tion ; and when she was driven from it at last, with a desperate clutch at the next plank which was floating 1 La Motlie, July n : Depeches,