Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/287

t57o.] STATE OF IRELAND. 267 tnore of us will have to do, unless God send help from heaven. Write to me, I beseech you, quickly. Tell me whether the Catholic King may help us, and what I am myself to do, for I may not be longer absent from my country, and leave my flock to the wolves. The Yiceroy has sacked one of my castles, and carried off the pall. Entreat his Holiness to send a second for me hither, as the ports of Ireland are for the most part in English hands ; and meanwhile, let his Majesty know his Holiness' s pleasure through his ambassador at your Court/ 1 '-'i;^J No immediate reply seems to have been sent to this letter. The Pope was probably watching the progress of the Catholic reaction in England. Philip had not made up his own mind, and waited also before making the required application, and the Archbishop lingered on at Madrid, expecting his resolution. But European politics, as has been already seen, assumed in the year 1570 a new phase. The Hugue- nots recovered their influence at Paris. The Queen- mother turned her back on Mary Stuart. The old pro- jects were revived for the conquest of Flanders, and with them the scheme for a marriage between a French prince and Elizabeth. The Queen of Scots flung her- self upon Philip ; and Philip, seeing her separated from France, began to look less unfavourably on her promo- tion to the English throne. Set at liberty by a Spanish army, and married to the Duke of Norfolk, as the leader 1 The Archbishop of Cashel to Cardinal Alciati, 1570: MSS.