AMBASSADOR. Of that—not having the gift of inspiration! I can give your Majesty no information. My master finds no fault with you, but your ministers encourage, and aid rebellion against his authority in the Low Countries, and English Corsairs, not content with robbing his merchantmen in the channel, have now extended their ravages to the Indies and the Pacific. The notorious Drake is, even now, returned with enormous booty. He is cherished and feted, as if the exploits of a robber were some great national triumph. His Majesty expects that you will not only order immediate restitution, but punish the offender as he deserves. QUEEN. Tush! Tush! Your master cannot be serious. If so, he must either be a fool, or think me one. If my ships should invade the possessions of the King of Spain, the act could not be considered Piracy—It would be war. Now your complaint shows that the nations are at peace, and therefore that the acts are not my acts. He has been a King of England, and knows well, that the laws of England do not extend to the Pacific—Hey! Hey! Our courts have neither authority to try, nor means to punish offences committed in the other hemisphere. AMBASSADOR (_with haste_). Drake is now in England with the booty. QUEEN. Well! Drake has committed no offence against the laws of his country. What exclusive right has your master, the King of Spain, to the Indies, the whole continent of America, and the wide Pacific? AMBASSADOR (_with much earnestness_). The Pope who, as Vicar of Christ, has authority over the whole earth, has given the Indies and the Pacific, to Spain. QUEEN (_laughing outright_). Did Charles the fifth owe his empire to the Pope, when he sent his army to imprison His Holiness and seize the possessions of the church? Hey! Will his son Philip acknowledge that he now owes them to the Pope? I trow not! Let the Pope only interfere with Philip’s dominions—We should soon hear of another Spanish army marching upon Rome, and probably Don Bernardino de Mendoza in command of it, to make the Pope a second time prisoner, and shut him up in his Castle of St. Angelo. That is the way Philip would acknowledge his authority over the earth; and that you would show your faith in it. Ha! Ha! Ha! (_Laughter_, _in which_ MENDOZA _cannot help joining_. _The_ QUEEN _walks about_, _exulting in her triumph_). AMBASSADOR. That would be an extreme case, your Majesty.