In a day the orgy of St. Bartholomew had changed the political aspect. The French, lately so caressed in England, were now regarded as monsters of falsity. Elizabeth, in deep mourning, after long delay received the French ambassador coldly, and contemptuously listened to his palliations and explanations; for she knew that the Guises were now paramount in France, and from them she had nothing but enmity to expect. But dismay was not allowed to dominate the counsels of Elizabeth for very long. When such a combination as this existed between the ancient enemies Spain and France, England’s safety depended upon sowing discord between them. This was never very difficult, for their interests nationally were always antagonistic, and their antipathies were stronger than their affinities.[209] At the first flush of the news Philip and the Spaniards were overjoyed that so many heretics should be butchered, and Guaras from London, writing to the Duke of Alba on the 30th August says: “God grant that it may be true, and that these rebel heretics may have met with this bad end”; and the national consequences were not lost upon him, even thus early, for though he was but a meddling merchant, he had far clearer ideas of policy than had de Spes. “Since the news came we hear no more of English soldiers going over to Flanders. This last affair, indeed, will give them something else to think about. If the news from Paris be true, the league between these people [_i.e._, the English] and the French will probably come to nothing, as the people are already murmuring that they cannot trust Frenchmen.”