Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/452

432 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61. calmer. Slie admitted that the King's offers, if they were made in good faith, were reasonable ; and then throwing off official restraint, as she usually did when she meant to be serious, she sent away the lords and ladies, sat herself down on a stool, bidding a page fetch another for Mendoza, and repeated to Leicester and four or five other councillors who remained the substance of Philip's proposals. Since his Majesty was so good and kind, she said, the States ought not to be encouraged in persisting further. Her manner became personally gracious. She told Mendoza she was delighted to see him again. People had frightened her about him, she said, pretending that he would make a revolution ; but she did not believe it : and he in return assured her that it was a wicked calumny ; his master had charged him to study only her pleasure ; his actions should prove how sincerely he was prepared to obey. 1 Thus the interview ended better than it began ; but the ambassador was still far from smooth water. The council were less ready than the Queen to believe in fail- words. Don John was still pressing the States as far as his means would allow, and daily taking towns in South Brabant. Burghley and Sussex, who spoke with Men- doza afterwards, suggested a suspension of arms and spoke of the Pacification of Ghent as the sole basis of a treaty possible. The States, they said, could not trust to uncertainties. Toleration of some kind ought to be secured to them by law, otherwise they would throw 1 Don Bernardino de Mendoza, March 19 : MSS. Simancas.