Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/84

76 kEIGN OF ELIZATH. [ctt. the owners of the privateers, 1 who had grown rich upon their pillage. It is easy to see how great must have heen the con- fusion when a Protestant crusade was being encouraged by Catholics and semi- Catholics. These movements were but eddies in the main stream of tendency ; but the spirit of her people restored the Queen to her self- possession, while on the other great subject of her un- easiness she was now to learn that she could have done nothing more fatal to herself than act upon her threats to Murray. In their first disgust at their apparent abandonment oy Norfolk, the more earnest Catholics had attached themselves to Leonard Dacres and his friends. The Duke's marriage with the Queen of Scots as concerted at present by the Protestant section of the council promised nothing to the cause of religion. It was rather likely to be accompanied with a firmer establish- ment of the Reformation in both countries. To this most important condition they could not be ignorant that the Queen of Scots had consented. They did not yet know how lightly such engagements could sit upon her, and they distrusted the feebleness and selfishness of Norfolk's character. To them therefore there ap- peared but one road open to avail themselves of the Spanish quarrel before it should be made up, with the quasi sanction which they had received from Philip, and to rise in open rebellion. The Earls of Cumberland, 1 La Mothe au Roy, July 27 : Depeches, vol. i.