Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/404

384 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 60. whether the union would continue, or whether the difference of creed would not prove too powerful a dis- integrant. One large influence Don John could count upon with confidence. To priests and monks sacked cities were of less moment than the maintenance of orthodoxy. The confessional would be in his favour from the first, and the pulpit when the first passion had cooled down. The States, after subscribing the treaty of Ghent, de- spatched M. Schwegenhem, who had been Alva's commis- sioner for the reopening of the trade, to Elizabeth, to ask for advice, encouragement, and as usual, for an imme- diate loan. It was no longer Holland and Zealand struggling half conquered on the edge of destruction : all the Provinces were standing erect, shoulder to shoulder, in strength sufficient, if their union held, to defy Spain to do its worst. Don John had been told that if ho would accept the treaty of Ghent, and dismiss the Spaniards, he would be received quietly as governor ; on this condition however the States- General peremp- torily insisted. But below the outward unanimity a thousand counter- currents were already seething and eddying. What France would do under existing influences could hardly be guessed. Guise, who was thoroughly Spanish, desired to join Don John. The King and the politicians had their eyes upon the Ca- tholic Provinces, and tried to persuade them to accept a French protectorate. Some weeks passed before Elizabeth could see her way. While the horror of the Antwerp fury was fresh,