Elizabeth was not so much the lover as to yield implicitly to this importunity; she was the wily and the wary Elizabeth still: and it was not till she had canvassed and balanced all the political advantages and disadvantages of such a step, that she expressed her willingness to join in the attempt of reinstating her royal supplicant on his throne. Caution directed her discourse: she represented the necessity of acquiring the support of other protestant Princes, whom she undertook to sound through her agents at their courts; and she insisted on seeing Don Emanuel De Castro himself, from whose lips alone she would accept those promises she determined to exact on the part of his King. Don Emanuel made no hesitation of immediately crossing to England: he left his residence in Italy, began to travel, and suddenly affecting to be sent for by a sick relation, who commanded one of the Portuguese forts in Africa, he dismissed his household, and attended only by one trusty domestic, passed in disguise from a neutral port to that of London. His reception at the British court was as flattering as his wishes: satisfied with her policy, and warmed by Essex into some interest for the fate of a monarch whose impetuous yet amiable character so nearly resembled his own, Elizabeth met De Castro with an air of perfect sincerity. The downfal of Philip rather more than the restoration of Sebastian, was in her thoughts, but equity and religion alone were on her tongue. Having questioned De Castro upon the situation of his royal master, she discovered that he was a husband and a father; though in what quarter of the globe he lay concealed, not even her subtle art could penetrate. This one reserve Don Emanuel deemed it a duty for him to insist on preserving. Pleased with the information thus obtained, as it afforded her the means of security against ingratitude, she peremptorily told De Castro, that unless the Princess of Portugal were put into her hands, she would not draw a sword in her father’s cause. At first, Don Emanuel was shocked; and conscious of the anguish such a requisition would inflict upon Kara Aziek, ventured to propose himself and his cousin as hostages for the fulfilment of any treaty she might conclude with Don Sebastian. Elizabeth was inflexible: and Essex, whose quick imagination had already transported him from the projection of their enterprise to its happy completion, and who saw therefore, but a span of time between the two periods, joined his persuasions; representing the candour and dignity of such a proceeding; assuring Don Emanuel that the moment in which he welcomed Blanche to an English shore, should see him bind himself to be her knight, her friend, and her protector.