Her great hope was that Philip might be lured back again to her side to live in prosperity and peace. Again and again her fond hopes were disappointed, and, a prey to a constitutional disorder, she sank deeper and deeper in despondency. After Feria left her in July she continued ailing, whilst those around her, seeing the approach of the inevitable change, busied themselves in plans which might, if they were fortunate, save them from disaster in the future. For men of all opinions recognised that it was not alone a woman who was dying, but a political and religious system that had failed; and vengeance was sharpening its knife, whilst those who had thus made England the servant of a foreigner and a prey to the bigots were trembling for the wrath to come. Early in September a fever came to add to the Queen’s ailments, and this, being an unusual symptom with her, caused grave anxiety; but Philip’s Flemish councillor Dassonleville, who was in London to inquire whether any league was being negotiated between England, Sweden, and Denmark, wrote early in October that both the Queen and Cardinal Pole were better than they had been since the beginning of their maladies. Parliament met at Westminster on the 5th November, and in it resounded loud complaints, bold and unsuppressed now, of the cost and damage to England caused by the war undertaken to please King Philip, and suggestions were made that the peace negotiations already in progress should be actively pushed. The great question, moreover, that was occupying all minds was that of the succession to the Crown when the Queen should die. “If your Majesty could have been present it would have been of the greatest importance in moving the Parliament to your desires,” wrote Dassonleville. “But if that be impossible, and important affairs should detain you in Flanders, the coming of the Count de Feria, who is much liked here,[131] would serve, nevertheless, to direct affairs so far as the time will allow. Many of the Council are beginning to understand how necessary the alliance of Flanders is to this realm, the salvation of which depends upon it, as England cannot alone withstand for long the efforts of its old enemies, the French and Scots, without the aid of your Majesty. The common people do not understand it yet, and talk of allying the Lady Elizabeth with the Earls of Westmorland or Arundel, and sometimes with a Prince of Sweden or Denmark, so inconstant are they.”[132]