Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/439

1 5 77-] TH E SPANISH TREATY. 419 to cast the cat before our legs/ The Prince of Orange recommended Elizabeth to make sure at all risks of Holland and Zealand : she would then be supreme at sea, and could control the situation. She was pausing, not from want of will . . . P October, but from legitimate uncertainty, when a fresh element of discord was introduced into the scene. The Catholic aristocracy of the Netherlands, to escape Orange and an English Protectorate, threw themselves on the German Empire. They invited the Emperor's brother, the Archduke. Matthias, to be their governor, in the place of Don John. They hoped that either Philip would acquiesce in the exchange, or that Rudolf, in default, would stand by them. With the Emperor's secret approval, Matthias stole away from Yienna at the beginning of October, came to Cologne, and waited there till it was certain that he would be received. Havre was invited to explain. He knew, before he left the States, what his friends intended. He said that they had sent for the Archduke, as a Prince of the House of Austria, to govern under the King of Spain, and that he had not expected that the Queen of England would disapprove. She said that she ought to have been consulted. She would send neither men nor money, till she understood the meaning of it, especially till she knew the opinion of the Prince of Orange. 1 The Prince, to whom she wrote, answered that he had not been taken into counsel, but on the whole he did Walsinghara to Davison, October 20 : M SS. Flanders.