Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/406

392 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [CH. 55- mind. It was idle to wait any longer for Elizabeth's approval. An application was about to be made to the King of Spain in the Queen of Scots' behalf. If the Duke of Norfolk would commit himself finally to the measures which were in contemplation, she was ready to fulfil her own engagements with him. If he shrunk from the danger or felt unequal to the enterprise, she said that she must hold herself free to make other ar- rangements. The English Peers still looked to Norfolk with a feudal attachment as the first of their order. Many of them represented to Don Guerau that they were still anxious that the Queen of Scots should marry him if the King of Spain would sanction it. 1 Two alternatives therefore, and two only, now lay before the Duke : either to retire from the field, and leave the Queen of Scots to look for some other alliance, or to declare him- self privately a Catholic and offer himself through Ridolfi to the Pope and Philip as the instrument of an armed revolution. 2 True to his character, Norfolk struggled hard to avoid committing himself. The prospect of the throne was too tempting to be abandoned, but he shivered at 1 ' Ilallandose ahora aqui la Corte, y en ella los mas principales Catolicos, ban aprestado otra vez la platica del casamiento del dicho Duque de Norfolk con la Eeyna de Escocia y restitucion de la religion Catolica. Piden socorro de V. Mag d , pero yo no he querido salir de la orden del Duque de Alva ni darles confianga ni desconfianQa, hasta que el dicho Duque me tiene mandado.* Don Guerau to Philip, February 6 : MSS. Simancas. 2 Confession of the Bishop of Ross : MUKDIN.