Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/90

7 6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 52. to have said at Hampton Court in the past winter, This woman is a murderess ; I have proof against her in her own hand ; I will fall back on my father's will, I will appeal to Parliament to help me ; she is unfit to reign and shall be no successor of mine. But she had not said this ; she had evaded the plain issue, and now had no fair excuse with which to protect herself, when Mary Stuart was again openly spoken of as standing next for the throne. 1 Yery angrily she complained that the lords were setting up Absalom against David. She said she would .marry marry Leicester perhaps to be rid of her vexation, 2 or marry the Archduke if he was still 1 ' Esta Eeyna entiende como to- dos los del Reyno vuelven los ojos & la de Escocia, y que ya no lo disi- mulan, antes la van mirando 6 casi reputando como sucesora della.' Don Guerau to Philip, July 25. a Norfolk and Arundel were cheating Leicester with the hope that if the Scotch affair could be settled for the Duke, he and the Queen might marry. Don Guerau wrote on the 6th of September: ' Tambien parece que el Conde de Leicester, con espera^a que el Duque de Norfolk y sus amigos le han dado de sustentar en el grado que esta, y aun consentir que se case con esta Reyna, hace la parte del dicho Duque.' Compare La Mothe to the King of France, July 27. The old stories were still cur- rent about Leicester's intimacy with Elizabeth. La Mothe says that Norfolk, at Arundel's suggestion, remonstrated with Leicester about it. If the Queen wished to marry him, Norfolk said, she should avow it openly, and he and his friends would countenance it otherwise, he said, that the Queen's honour would suffer, ' et le taxa de ce qu'ayant 1'entree comme il a dans la chambre de la Reyne, lorsqu'elle est au lict il s'es- toit ingere de luy bailler la chemise au lieu de sa dame d'honneur, et de s'hazarder de luy mesme de la baisser sans y estre convye.' Leicester answered, ' qu'a la verite la Reyne luy avoit monstre quelque bonne affection, que 1'avoit mis en esperance de la pouvoir espouser, y d'oser ainsy user de quel- que honneste privaulte envers elle.' He said he would endeavour to bring matters to a crisis. If the Queen made up her mind not to marry him he would discontinue so close an in- timacy with her. ' Et quoy que ce