converted by my act.... You will, however, not propose any conditions until you see how the Queen is disposed towards the matter itself, and mark well that you must commence to broach the subject with the Queen alone, as she has already opened a way to such an approach.” It must have been evident to Feria at this time (January, 1559) that the Queen could not marry his master without losing her crown. The Protestant party were now paramount, the reformers had flocked back from Switzerland and Germany, and Elizabeth had cast in her lot with them. To acknowledge the Pope’s power of absolution would have been to confess herself a bastard and an usurper. There was only one possible Catholic sovereign of England and that was Mary Queen of Scots, and it is difficult to see what could have been Philip’s drift in making such an offer, which, if it had been accepted, would have vitiated his wife’s claim to the crown of England and have strengthened that of the French candidate. In any case Elizabeth perceived it quickly enough, and when Feria approached her and delivered a letter from Philip to her, she began coyly to fence with the question. She knew she could not marry Philip; but she was vain and greedy of admiration, and it would be something to refuse such an offer if she could get it put into a form which would enable her to refuse it. So she began to profess her maiden disinclination to change her state; “but,” says Feria, “as I saw whither she was tending, I cut short the reply, and by the conversation which followed ... as well as the hurry she was in to give me the answer, I soon understood what the answer would be ... to shelve the business with fair words.” The end of it was that he refused to take any answer at all, unless it were a favourable one, and so deprived Elizabeth of the satisfaction of saying she had actually rejected his master’s offer--which was a grievance with her for many years afterwards.