Immediately afterwards a Council was called, when, the marriage now appearing again possible, Leicester and Hatton, who had been loaded with French bribes, showed in their true colours. They both opposed the match strenuously. It was a danger, they said, to England and to religion, and no words were strong enough to condemn it. Sussex, of course, was in favour of it, and he and Leicester were about to come to fisticuffs when Cecil stepped between them, and told them that the question of marriage or no marriage was in the hands of the Queen-- all they had to consider was what security should be exacted if the marriage took place. They broke up in confusion, without coming to any decision, and Cecil alone remained afterwards in conclave with the Queen, the result of their conference being that the ships were again ordered to make ready to sail with Alençon. When Pinart found that his threats to Elizabeth had produced no permanent result, he fell back upon his alternative instructions, to threaten Alençon that if he went to the Netherlands under English auspices he and his followers should be treated as rebels and the enemies of France. This again alarmed the Queen, who next tried her cajoleries on Pinart. What were his final instructions, she asked, with all her battery of fascinations; but he said he would not tell her until he received her decided reply about the marriage, and only warned her to desist from helping Alençon in the Netherlands, or evil would come of it both to him and to her. She said she had not urged him to it, and had only helped him after he began, whilst she now thought it was better for him to retire and have done with the business. All this fickleness left poor Alençon in a chaotic condition of mind from day to day. First the Queen would give him £30,000, then a mere trifle of 20,000 crowns, then nothing, then £70,000, and so on, Cecil being strongly of opinion that no large sum should be furnished to him; but withal every effort was made to get him gone in a good humour. He was tardy and unwilling, afraid of Pinart’s threats, and full of sulky vows of vengeance against the Queen for sending him away unmarried. He was only dissembling, he told his friends; they should all see what he would do before he went. Poor creature! he could do nothing but impotently grumble and vapour, mere twig as he was on the torrent of events, borne hither and thither by stronger minds than his own.