Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/394

380 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 55. she could scarcely wish to succeed. She at least had no expectation that Anjou would come back to her if she were free. Her friends in Scotland had looked to France to unloose the meshes of the obligations into which they were about to enter, and France, false, traitorous France, would only draw the cords tighter, and leave her a slave in Elizabeth's hands. Alva caught the alarm like herself. He too had satisfied himself that peace in France meant war in the Netherlands. He had advised Mary Stuart in the autumn to consent to the treaty, but when he heard of the intended match, he felt that it would but throw her again into the hands of her rebel subjects, and that the chances of a Catholic revolution would be farther off than ever. She was recommended to attempt an escape, and if she could succeed, to make her way into Spain, where she could either marry Don John, or wait for Norfolk to declare himself a Catholic. 1 Yet she was disturbed with seeing that Alva also seemed anxious to compound his quarrels with Eliza- beth. The existing Government of England was a reality to which the Duke attached more importance than the Catholic refugees desired. The ease with wnich the Northern rebellion had been put down, weighed more with him than tabulated statistics on the numerical strength of the disaffected. The unflinching determination with which the Queen maintained the privateers seemed to prove that she was confident of her resources. He Mary Stuart to the Bishop of Ross, February 8 : LABANOFF, vol. iii.