Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/507

iS 79-] THE ALENCON MARRIAGE. 4^ shall not be satisfied/ lie concluded, ' till the curtain is drawn, the candles out, and Monsieur fairly in bed/ 1 Among those who had the best right to advise she found slight encouragement. Sussex, as has been seen, was favourable, but Walsingham was sternly contemptuous. The friends of the Queen of Scots were jealous for the chances of the succession, and Sir James Crofts was engaged for Spain. The country received the news with universal disgust. A marriage between a woman of forty-six and a youth of twenty- three was in itself monstrous. The preacher in the Royal Chapel, on the first Sunday in Lent, said boldly in the Queen's presence that England did not need a second foreign marriage ; Queen Mary's experience was suffi- cient. 2 Elizabeth rose in a fury, and sailed out of tho church, but the same language was echoed in every pulpit in London. A French prince, with the taint of St Bartholomew on his family, united every party in the country in a common clamour of disapproval. Cecil only, of all really wise men, hesitated; and Cecil hesitated only because he was desperate of the Queen ever choosing an open course and honourably following it. Notes in his handwriting, with dates of the present spring upon them, scattered through the State papers, show how earnestly he was weighing the situation. The marriage would secure the French al- "/ liance, and would be a shield against Spain. AlenQon was personally unobjectionable, and there might per- 1 Simier to M. Desonncaulx, April 12 : MSS. France. 2 Meiidoza to Cayas, March 31 : MSS. Simancas.