to the effect that, although he had formerly opposed the marriage, he now considered that it would be conducive to the interests of England, and Brisson replied in a similar strain. Walsingham then launched his thunderbolt. He alleged that since, and as a consequence of, de Bacqueville’s mission eighteen months before, the Pope had flooded England with Jesuit emissaries, and had sent armed forces to Ireland. The projected marriage, he said, had raised the hopes of the Catholics in England, who were already discounting its effects. He dwelt upon the dangers which might attend an accouchement of the Queen at her age, and complained bitterly that Alençon, even since the negotiations had been in progress, had entered into dealings with the States-General of Flanders. The marriage might therefore drag England into war, and the Queen had consequently written a letter to the Duke, to which she was now awaiting the reply.[128] The envoys replied in astonishment that they had looked upon the principle of the marriage as settled before they came, and could not enter into discussions of that sort, but pointed out that as England had now offended Spain past forgiveness, it was needful for the Queen to gain the friendship of France by means of the marriage. They were told that if the Queen married it would be from no such consideration as this, but out of pure affection, and suggested that if the marriage did not take place an offensive and defensive alliance against Spain might be concluded. But this, although the main object of the Englishmen, did not at all suit the French. They were only authorised, they said, to conclude the marriage, for which purpose they had come, and not to arrange an alliance. Let the Queen marry Monsieur first, and then she might be sure the King of France would help her in the Netherlands and elsewhere. “In the meanwhile,” says Mendoza, “no formal commission has been given to the English ministers, by which it is clear that the Queen is simply procrastinating about the marriage in order to draw the French into an offensive alliance without burdening herself with a husband, whilst the French wish first to make sure of the marriage.[129] That the Spanish ambassador was quite right in his reading of events we may now see by the note in Cecil’s hand summarising the arguments pro and con for the Queen’s guidance, and also by the draft of the discourse pronounced by Walsingham to the ambassadors which very plainly show that the Queen at this time, notwithstanding her honeyed words to “the monk” and loving letters to Alençon, was not in earnest. Banquet succeeded banquet, but the Frenchmen could get no further. In vain they protested that they had simply come to conclude the draft contract negotiated by Simier, that their mission was limited, and that they had no more time to waste in merrymaking. Let us get to business first, they said, and feast afterwards. On the 7th of May they were invited to a ball at