The Queen was only partially conscious and unable to read Philip’s letter when Feria came to bring her a message from her husband, and he lost no time in travelling to Hatfield on his principal mission. Elizabeth had been so wary and diplomatic in her difficult circumstances that she was as yet an unknown quantity; and doubtless the crafty men of the world who proposed to win her for Spain anticipated no great difficulty from this reticent young woman of five-and-twenty, who had accepted Catholicism so readily. The country was profoundly divided, and it was thought that the new Queen—as Dassonleville wrote, in good faith—would be unable to establish her authority without help from abroad. It was therefore, on the face of it, not an extravagant presumption that she might prefer to follow her sister’s lead and adhere to the traditional policy of England in allying herself with the sovereign of Spain and Flanders. When Feria arrived at Hatfield he received his first surprise. Before starting from London he had summoned the Council, and in Philip’s name had approved of Elizabeth as the heir to the Crown. Believing that this would enable him to claim Elizabeth’s thanks, he began at Hatfield to enlarge upon the service Philip had done her in thus securing to her the succession. So long as high-flown compliment had been the staple of conversation Elizabeth had given Feria as good as he had brought; but the moment he bespoke her gratitude she stopped him, and said that she would owe her Crown to no one but her people; and when he broadly hinted at the advantage to her of a marriage with her Spanish brother-in-law or a nominee of his she evaded the suggestion dexterously.[135] All through the interview she showed a determination to resist any attempts to place her in the tutelage of Philip. She answered Feria, indeed, somewhat tartly at one point, that her sister had lost her people’s love by marrying a foreigner; and the ambassador left her already convinced that she would be no docile instrument in his master’s hands, as her sister had been.