When Walsingham landed at Boulogne he found a message from Alençon at Chateau-Thierry asking him to meet him and his mother at La Fère before going to see the King. This he did, where he was met by the Duke with complaints and reproaches at the indefinite postponement of the marriage by the Queen until a national alliance had been effected. He told Walsingham that he could never get the King to consent to an alliance unless the marriage took place first, as the King feared that when they had pledged him too far for him to draw back the Queen would slip out of it and leave France alone face to face with Spain. The efforts of Catharine and her adviser, Turenne, were directed to obtaining at least a money subsidy to Alençon first, which would have pledged Elizabeth to some extent; but Walsingham was too discreet to be drawn, and tried to get an arrangement which should embark France in the business before England was compromised. Catharine said she was well aware of the need for concerted action, but she was afraid, as Elizabeth had apparently thrown over the marriage for fear of offending her subjects, she might afterwards throw over the alliance for the same reason. It is easy to see that both sides were finessing with the same object, namely, to throw upon the other the burden and onus of curbing the power of Spain, which they both feared; and when Catharine saw she could make nothing of Walsingham or his mistress, she played her trump card, with which she had come to La Fère fully prepared. She promised Alençon that if he would abandon his attempt, the Prince of Parma would retire from Cambrai, Alençon should marry the infanta, gain the support and friendship of Spain, obtain a larger dotation from his brother, and receive the investure of the sovereign states of Saluzzo and Provence. But Alençon could not trust Spain and the Guises, and refused the tempting bait. Cecil and Elizabeth mistrusted the presence of Catharine near her son, and fearing that he might at last cede to her influence, had sent a considerable sum of money by Walsingham, according to Mendoza, to help Alençon to make masked war upon Spain, without pledging England or drawing the Queen into war through the marriage. Alençon was angry at this suggestion, and said that he would take no such answer, which was quite at variance with the Queen’s own words. He threatened and stormed until Walsingham almost lost his temper, and Sir James Crofts told Mendoza that when the Queen received the news of this “she wept like a child, saying that she did not know what to do, or into what trouble Leicester had drawn her.” Walsingham also reported that the King of France was extremely offended that after so grand an embassy had been sent to England only Walsingham should be sent in return, “and that if he could manage to have him put out of the way he would attempt it.” Lord Henry Howard was at once sent off with a loving message to Alençon to mollify him, and urgent new instructions were