Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/472

452 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61. raine. The Archbishop of Glasgow opened the subject with the Spanish ambassador in Paris, Don Juan de Vargas, and a few days later the Duke of Guise came in person to tell de Vargas that he had almost obtained his Sovereign's consent to his attempting l the enterprise of England.' Scotland was now open. An army could be collected at Calais, and in three days landed at Leith. If Don John might co-operate, ten thousand Germans might be shipped simultaneously at Gravelines, and the Queen of England would receive merited chastisement for her crimes against the commonwealth of Christen- dom. ' The Duke/ wrote Vargas, in reporting the conversation to Philip, ' insisted much on the ease with which the thing might be done/ * He was aware, he said, that your Majesty would have interfered long ago, but for France, as France would have inter- fered but for your Majesty. He trusts that you will now unite, and give the law as you will be able to do to the world. You can divide England between } r our- selves. His Holiness will make a third, and arrange the terms of partition.' * The slow Philip ruminated after his fashion on the bold proposal : not liking it, yet not absolutely reject- ing it. Vargas, whom Guise had inoculated with his own impatience, spurred his sluggish resolution. In successive letters, he urged that Elizabeth would inter- fere ; that with one of her thousand tricks she would get the King of Scots into her power ; that with the Don Juan de Vargas to Philip, April 13 : TEULET, vol. v.