Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/284

270 PEIGN OF E LIZ ABE TH. [CH. 54. The Lady at Tutbury meanwhile was making Europe ring with her cries. It was not for herself that she now pleaded, but for her country, which the ancient enemy was invading and laying waste. She besieged Charles IX. and Catherine de Medici with entreaties to rouse themselves out of their sleep, and hurry to the rescue of their old allies. To the Spanish ambassador she wrote, that if Philip and Alva sat still her cause would be ruined for ever, and with it the Holy Catholic faith. 1 Driving the spur into the languid side of her English allies, she told Norfolk, that * she would be soon forced to consent to deliver her son and embrace the Protestant religion to get her liberty ; ' 2 while to the Pope, ignorant as yet what he had done for her, she poured out an impassioned flood of pious rhetoric. She described herself as longing for the time when she could uproot heresy and restore the blessed faith of Christ. She besought him to lay his injunctions on the Catholic princes to stand her friends in the hour of trial, or else, since they seemed so remiss, she asked his gracious absolution if she made use of perfidy, if, like Naaman, she bowed her head in the House of Eimmon, in Scotland to the hands of any whom Morton with her Majesty's consent shall appoint. But these matters have too long slept. It is time to wake ; and therefore, good Mr Secretary, sound the Queen's Ma- jesty's mind fully ; and if she resolve to restore the Scottish Queen, advise her to do it in convenient sort, and suffer me not to put my finger in the tire without cause, uad lur to ho drawn into it by such degrees as are neither honourable nor sure.' Sus- sex to Cecil, April 25 : MSS. Hat- 1 La Reyna de Escocia a Don Guerau de Espes, April, 1570: MSS. Simancas. 2 Mary Stuart to the Duke of Norfolk, March 19 and April 18: LABANOKF, vol. iii.