Page:The Queens of England.djvu/458

 and so many others, "that she was resolved to die a virgin." It is evident that she never had the smallest intention to unite herself with either of them; though to establish this opinion in his mind, the reader must not limit himself to a consultation of the pages of Hume. This great historian reveals, that with respect to the elder duke, the whole negotiation was equally a stratagem, both with regard to Catherine and Elizabeth ; but with regard to the second, he seems to think that her affections were involved, though the object of them was, what he does not state, "a very ugly man." The most amusing feature of this grand contention of wile between two such illustrious practitioners as the queen-mother of France and the maiden-ruler of England is, that each being far too clever to fail, only succeeded by each cheating the other. The object of Catherine was to prevent suspicion arising in the mind of either Elizabeth or the Huguenots of her sanguinary resolutions with regard to the latter, by courting the alliance of a protestant princess for her son. The object of Elizabeth, in responding to the snare was the knowledge that she could render it the means of weakening the ties between France and Scotland and of intimidating Spain. The purposes of both the arch-deceivers were obtained, and both, therefore, were mutual dupes; yet one would have thought that either of two such persons might safely have said to the other what Grimbald demands of Philidel,—

After even the horrible massacre of St. Bartholomew, still the scheming queen would not manifest her horror and disgust for the diabolical perpetrators; but rather than offend France utterly, and appear isolated to Spain, she consented that an attempt should be commenced to negotiate a marriage between her and the Duke of Alencon, the younger brother of her previous suitor. This affair languished for no less a term than nine years; when Alencon himself, who had succeeded to the title of Anjou, and was, probably, innocent—being restless, weak and ambitious—sent over an ambassador to plead his suit, preparatory to his own visit to England. This emissary, whose name was Simier, seems to have been a clever, specious man, and completely qualified to fool the queen "to the top of her bent." So entirely did he succeed, that at last even the jealousy of Leicester, who had now been the pre-