which, as they are described in the pages of Hollingshead, and by the ambassadors themselves, appear to us incredibly far-fetched, childish, and absurd; but which doubtless at the time were considered models of poetry and delicate compliment to the Queen and her guests. At length, on taking leave of the Queen after the third day of feasting, the Prince Dauphin asked her when they should get to business, and which councillors she would appoint to negotiate with the embassy. She was of course well prepared for the request, and had planned her course before the envoys had set foot in England. Leicester and Walsingham had done their best to prevent the passport for them from being sent, but had been overborne by Cecil, Sussex, and the Queen herself; and when Leicester, on the day before their crossing, came again to his mistress and pointed out the danger she ran in, carrying the matter so far, she tranquillised him by saying that if the embassy became too pressing she would confuse the negotiations by bringing Alençon himself over to England for a few days, whilst the envoys were here. She could, she said, square matters without a marriage and without offence by giving him a money aid to his Netherlands projects. To Sussex, and, above all, to Marchaumont, she artfully told an entirely opposite tale, and led them to believe that if the Duke came suddenly and secretly she would certainly marry him, and, needless to say, “the monk” at once wrote pressing his master to make ready to come over if necessary. But Marchaumont at the same time told the ambassadors that he was of opinion that unless they could get a distinct pledge that the marriage should take place they ought to veto the Duke’s visit. The control of events was thus cunningly centred in the Queen’s hand. As the Spanish ambassador points out to Philip, she had silenced the opposition of Leicester and his friends, had convinced those favourable to the marriage of her sincerity, whilst providing herself with a loophole of escape in any case. If Alençon did come she could deal with him over the heads of the embassy, and so confuse matters, whilst if he did not come she could allege that as a reason for not marrying him, and infer that the negotiations had fallen through by no fault of her own.[127] When the Prince Dauphin therefore asked her to appoint a committee of the Council she was ready for him, and named Cecil, Bedford, Leicester, Sussex, Hatton, and Walsingham--that is to say, three men who were determined to prevent the marriage if possible, one --Sussex--honestly in favour of it, and the other two--Cecil and Bedford--only concerned in rendering the match innocuous to English interests, if the Queen determined to carry it through, which neither of them believed she would. Business began with a grand banquet at the Lord Treasurer’s new house in the Strand, hard by the lodgings of the embassy. After a verification of powers Cecil made a long speech