Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/74

 60 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 52. The part was well played, the tone assumed through- out the answer was exactly pitched to please the coun- cil. It was graceful, dignified, self-respecting, and on the points of substantial concession left nothing to be desired. The next step would naturally have been to consult Elizabeth ; but there was a latent feeling among the lords that the proposal would not be welcome if it came from themselves. They preferred to have it opened by Murray, and they waited impatiently for the coming of Maitland, whom Elizabeth herself appeared to expect. But Murray, as well as they, had his own grounds for hesitation. In explaining his conduct afterwards to Cecil, he said, that ' if the Queen, as she had led him to expect, had pronounced a decisive judgment at Hampton Court, he would have listened to no overtures from the Duke of Norfolk at all. But seeing her High- ness so earnestly travelling for his sister's restoration, he could not think it profitable to lose the benevolence of such as seemed bent that way.' 'The Queen had been so strange and uncertain, that she had given him matter enough to think the marriage might be the thing which she most desired/ l But, like the lords, he shrunk from speaking of it till he knew how it was likely to be taken. And he had another difficulty. Norfolk desired that the restoration should precede the marriage, as if to clear the Queen of Scots' reputation. Murray's caution made him prefer that she should be 1 Murray to Cecil, October 29 ; Murray to Elizabeth, October 29 : MSS. Scotland.