Queen, and said that the only thing against him was his ugly face. “Why, you knave,” she replied, “you were for ever speaking ill of him before: you veer round like a weathercock.”[143] At the same time all sorts of scandalous tittle-tattle began to arise. Every morning little love-letters signed “your prince frog,” were sent from Alençon to the Queen, and Lippomano, the Venetian ambassador, assures the Doge and Senate that the Queen entered his chamber every morning before he was out of bed, and brought him a cup of broth. He was with her, says Mendoza, all day and every day, no one being present but Sussex and Stafford, and even they were not allowed to hear their conversation. In order to allay the fears of her Protestant subjects, some of whom were grumbling because Alençon heard mass daily, unwonted severity was used towards the Catholics during Alençon’s visit, and the Jesuit priests Campion, Sherwin, and Briant, were executed at Tyburn under circumstances of the most heartrending cruelty. The Spanish ambassador at last got somewhat anxious, and by Philip’s orders began to approach Cecil with suggestions of the falsity of Frenchmen and the advisability of a close union between England and Spain, all injuries on each side being forgiven and forgotten. He went to the length, indeed, of hinting that the French were intriguing with Mary of Scotland under cover of the marriage negotiations, although he himself at the time was plotting with and for her. But Cecil was a match for him, and let him understand that the friendship proposed was more necessary for Spain than it was for England. The position at the time of Alençon’s visit is well summarised by Mendoza in a letter to King Philip[144] as follows: “As soon as the Queen learnt that Alençon had arrived, she said to certain of the councillors separately that they must consider what would have to be done with him; to which they replied that they could hardly do that unless she made her own intentions upon the subject clear. To this she answered that she was quite satisfied with the person of Alençon. When he arrived here he told those who he knew were in his favour that he would not go out in public nor undertake any other affairs until he had settled with the Queen the subject about which he came. If this be so, present indications prove that he has got an affirmative answer, as he now shows himself almost publicly, and appears to be in high spirits, all the principal people at Court being allowed to see him at dinner and supper. Leicester leaves nothing undone, and in the absence of the Prince Dauphin, always hands Alençon the napkin, publicly declaring that there seems to be no other way for the Queen to secure the tranquillity of England but for her to marry Alençon; and Walsingham says the same. The Frenchmen who came with him, and the ambassadors who were here before, look upon the marriage as an accomplished fact, but the English in general scoff at