Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/501

 TPIE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 487 It required no small audacity on the part of Elizabeth, when her harbours were the scene of outrages so unparalleled, to send a minister to Madrid to settle her differences with Philip. She cal- culated however on the notoriously extreme reluctance of the King of Spain to quarrel with her. The un- licensed violences of her subjects, if he was without the courage to resent them, might increase his anxiety for a better understanding with her ; and she probably ex- pected that Philip would submit to any conditions which she might please to dictate. She was herself uneasy at the possible consequences of her behaviour to France. She trusted perhaps to Philip's alarm at the report of her intended marriage, and she may have hoped that he would meet her overtures with an open hand. In ful- filment therefore of her promises to Alva, she commis- sioned Sir Henry Cobham to the Spanish Court in the spring, and he arrived there just after Philip had received the Duke of Alva's letter, and was told to expect the coming of Ridolfi. The first impression of the King when he heard that an English envoy was coming, was much what Eliza- domesticum meum, ut te certiorem reddat de rebus quse fcede admodum Dovevi aguntur, ubi prostant publice prsedao piraticse venales, hominesque ctiam nostri a latronibus capti ven- duntur, neque vili valde pretio. Ad centum enimlibrarumsummamunus et alter censi fuere, plurimique etiam ex his captivis apud Baillivium Do- vercnsem in vinculis asservantur, in- terim piratis et Serenissimse Reginae magistratibus de illorum redemptione agentibus. Tanta est autem illic tarn mercium captarum quam homi- num auctio ut nullum possit esse aliud magis piratarum emporium in tota EuropaV Don Guerati to Burghley, September 12 : MSS. Spain.