Mendoza had avoided appearing at Court during the warm philandering with Alençon and the French that was going on, fearing that Elizabeth might, with her usual artfulness, get better terms from the French by pretending that the Spaniards were seeking her. But this new insult overcame all other considerations. In a violent temper Mendoza demanded immediate reparation from the Queen. She must receive him at once, he said, and apologise, or he would leave the country and lay the matter before his master for redress. Elizabeth was anxious not to have an altercation with him whilst the special French embassy as well as Alençon’s _mignons_ filled her Court, and by flattery and cajolery she managed to defer the unpleasant interview until the French embassy had gone. On the 17th June, Elizabeth stood in the gallery of Whitehall overlooking the river, when Mendoza, who had landed at the private stairs, was led to her by Hatton, the captain of the guard. Fearing that the Spaniard might use angry words, she took him into a window embrasure out of earshot of the only two persons in the gallery, Sussex and Hatton, and at once anticipated him by complaining bitterly that King Philip had helped these knaves of Irish rebels by sending a large body of soldiers to them. Mendoza said he must leave that subject for another time, and launched into angry invective of the treatment to which he had been subjected. He had, he said, been denied rights recognised even amongst savages to the ambassadors of kings. He had expected to hear that she had hanged the constables the next morning; but as she had not done so, he supposed they had told the truth when they said they acted in her name.