Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/58

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 52. first display of a Spanish, flag on English soil, they would rise as a man in Philip's name, and the heretics and the pirates should meet their deserts. 1 Had Catherine de Medici cared more for the Ca- tholic faith than she cared for France, English Pro- testantism would have had a fiery trial before it. But as Philip could not permit the French to invade Eng- land, so Catherine was as little able to look complacently upon a revolution in favour of Spain ; and the more long-sighted of the Catholics themselves began to fear that religion would be lost sight of in the quarrels of the two great Powers, and that England, as was said before, ' would become another Milan/ A secret agent of Pope Pius in London told La Mothe Fenelon, that if there was any difference of opinion if there was the faintest cloud of suspicion between the Courts of Paris and Madrid it would be better for Christendom that England should be let alone ; the evil of interfer- ing would outweigh the good. Don Guerau had de- sired that, to increase the mercantile pressure in Lon- don, the English should be excluded from the ports of France : ' I know not what to think about this/ La Mothe Fenelon wrote to his sovereign : * it may be that the Duke of Alva means only to extort from Eng- land reparation for his own wrongs, and when he has 1 ' Much os Catolicos me escriben cartas secretamente que en viendo banderas de V. Mag d en este reyno se levantaran todos para servirle ; y ierto como se me dan entender por V. Mag' 1 en la reduccion del y cas- tigo de algunos insolentes hereges y desvergonzados ladrones, yo no tengo por cosa dificil en sugetar este reyno d a lo menos haoer mudar el gobierno y religion.' Don Guerau to Philip, April 2 : MSS. Sitnancaa.