Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/506

 492 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56 dismissal of the refugees, the differences between the two countries could be satisfactorily adjusted, and the arrested property on both sides be restored. Elizabeth as the wife of the Duke of Anjou might have held this language with success. Resting as it did upon a mere threat of a marriage which no one out of England expected to see fulfilled, and coming simul- taneously with an offer which promised to place Eliza- beth and her throne at Philip's mercy, the insolence of it was too much for the already sorely tried Castilians. The sluggish blood of the King himself ran quicker in his veins when he was required to refuse even common hospitality to the Catholic exiles. The council sat for a week to consider their reply. Their discussions were submitted day after day to the King, and returned with his comments on the margin. Their resolution shaped itself at last into the following form : ' The envoy had come to treat with the King in person. The King should decline to hear or speak with him on any public matter. The envoy should be in- formed privately that his complaints and demands were alike preposterous. The disputes had notoriously com- menced in the seizure of the Spanish treasure ; and while the English harbours were dens of pirates from which the King's revolted subjects preyed upon his commerce, while the crews were recruited from English subjects, and guns and powder supplied to them from English arsenals, to make a grievance of the residence of a few persecuted Catholics in the King's dominions was intolerably monstrous.'