and kindly the worthy Germans negotiated.” And then, cleverly taking advantage of what he had just heard from Cecil, he said that he had been told that the Archduke had been represented to her as a young monster, very different from what he was; “for, although both brothers are comely, this one who was offered to her now was the younger and more likely to please her than the one who had been spoken of before. I thought best to speak in this way, as I understood in my talk with Cecil that it was Ferdinand they dreaded.” The Queen at this pricked up her ears, and asked the Bishop of whom he was speaking. He told her the Archduke Charles, who was a very fit match for her as Ferdinand was not available. “When she was quite satisfied of this,” says the Bishop, “she went back again to her nonsense, saying that she would rather be a nun than marry a man she did not know, on the faith of portrait painters.” She then hinted that she wished Charles to visit her in person, even if he came in disguise. Her thirst for admiration and homage was insatiable, and, popular parvenue as she was, the idea of princes of spotless lineage humbling themselves before her very nearly led her into a quagmire more than once. She probably had not the slightest intention of marrying Charles at the time, but it would have been a great feather in her cap if she could have brought a prince of the house of Austria as a suitor to her feet. But the Bishop was a match for her on this occasion. “I do not know whether she is jesting ... but I really believe she would like to arrange for this visit in disguise. So I turned it to a joke, and said we had better discuss the substance of the business.... I would undertake that the Archduke would not displease her.” The Bishop having soothed the Queen with _persiflage_ of this sort, disconsolate Ravenstein was called back rather more graciously, and told that, on the Bishop’s request, the Queen would appoint a committee of the Council to hear his proposals.