Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/342

326 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 65. Elizabeth's consent and in the Protestant interest, to succeeding eventually to her throne. ' The King/ wrote Bowes, ' attends how her Majesty will deal. The French and Papists look that he shall receive a dilatory answer, persuading him to provide otherwise for his standing and welfare. The well-affected must be comforted and sustained by her Majesty's kind dealing with the- King, otherwise they shall be utterly cast down. The King and the realm can now be won or lost. I need not persuade the necessity of her Ma- jesty's timely resolution, for the King's own necessity and the conditions of the time and personal causes will constrain the King and the realm to resolve speedily to provide for themselves without further trust to us,' 1 But Elizabeth had now, as she supposed, the control of the situation. Mary Stuart and James were separated, and as long as they could be kept at issue, she conceived that she had them both in her power that she could hold James in check by threatening to release his mother, force Mary Stuart into submission by proving to her that she was neglected by her son, and remain supreme arbiter of both their fortunes without risk, and stiP better, without cost. She was the less disposed to favour James, as he had just given her special cause of offence. The Jesuit Gaspar Holt, after lying concealed for some weeks at Seton, had been surprised and taken. On his first ex- amination he had confessed that ' there was a purpose in 1 Bowes to "Walsingham, May 8 : MSS. Scotland,