Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/378

364 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 55. were coquetting with each other, each at heart most anxious, and each afraid of losing the prize by grasping at it too precipitately. ' The Queen of England/ reported La Mothe, ' is one of those who will fly when they are sought after. It is a peculiarity of the English nation, who the more you desire anything of them the more coy they become, though what you ask is to their own advantage/ * I57I Till the middle of January the negotiation January. was ]^ e p^ a p ro f ounc [ secret, Leicester and Cecil alone sharing the Queen's confidence. The prelim- inary stages however being got over, and the goodwill ascertained on both sides, an indirect proposal was made by Charles which it became necessary to submit to the council. No stronger proof could have been given of the desirableness of the marriage than the dismay with which the mention of it was received. On Arundel and Ar undel j s friends, on the party of the Duke of Norfolk and the Queen of Scots, on the adherents of the House of Burgundy, and the intriguers for a Ca- tholic revolution, it fell like a thunderstroke. La Mothe argued and reasoned, but to no purpose. If such a marriage as this could be brought about in the teeth of the excommunication, the cause of the Catholic Church, the Church of the Council of Trent, the Church of fanaticism, the Church of Alva and Philip and the Cardinal of Lorraine, would be lost for ever. Scene 1 La Mothe, January 23.