Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/516

496 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61 marrow of Monsieur's bones had been eaten out by de- bauchery. Monsieur was not Satan in the form of a serpent, but the old serpent himself in the form of a man, come a second time to seduce the English Eve and ruin the English Paradise. Rhetoric, which seems extravagant to colder eyes, was mere statement of fact to a generation so near a St Bartholomew. Wherever a Yalois set his foot the ' Paris nuptials ' were expected to follow. Yet the language was indecorous and certainly injudicious. The Queen's natural hatred of the Puritans found an excuse for indulging itself. Her vanity had been wounded, her guest insulted, and the French nation insulted also in his person. The writer and the printer were arrested. She flung them into the Tower, she swore she would hang them, and she tried to do it. She put out a pro- clamation indignantly denying the insinuations against Alencon's character. ' She was touched in honour/ she said, ' that having so long loved her, and having ven- tured into England to visit her, he should be so falsely and unjustly reproved Her subjects had persuaded her to marry ; she was endeavouring to gratify them, and was met with an unworthy reward.' * The proclamation and the arrest of Stubbs caused fresh exasperation, and it was feared that violence might be attempted against the French residents in London. The multitude knowing nothing of European politics, could not appreciate the reasons which recom- 1 Proclamation by the Q,ueen, September 27, 1579: MSS. Domestic.