“After much circumlocution she said she wished to confess to me.... She was no angel, and did not deny that she had some affection for Lord Robert ... but she certainly had not decided to marry him or any one else, although she daily saw more clearly the necessity of her marriage, and to satisfy the English humour it was desirable that she should marry an Englishman.... What would your Majesty think, she asked, if she married one of her servants?” The Bishop replied that he did not know, but would write and ask the King, if she desired him to do so, although he believed his master would be glad to hear of her marriage in any case, and would no doubt be happy to learn of the advancement and elevation of Lord Robert, for whom he felt much affection. The Queen had perforce to be content with this, which she at once repeated to Dudley, who came to the Bishop to thank him. Dudley was so elated at the almost unexpected help he was getting that, in the fulness of his heart he repeated Sidney’s pledge that in return the whole control of the Government should be handed over to the King of Spain, and the Catholic religion restored. The Bishop stopped him at once. He had done, he said, and would do, all he could to forward his marriage, but he would make no bargain about religion. That was an affair of their own conscience. “I am thus cautious with these people, because if they are playing false, which is quite possible, I do not wish to give them the opportunity of saying that we offered them your Majesty’s favour in return for their changing their religion, as they say similar things to make your Majesty disliked by the heretics here and in Germany. If they are acting straightforwardly, a word from your Majesty in due time will do more than I can do with many.”[28] At the same time the Bishop made no secret to the King of his opinion that unless the “heretics” were to finally prevail Dudley’s marriage must be forwarded or a revolution and the removal of the Queen carried out. Philip was even more cautious than his ambassador. He was anxious to help Dudley on the lines suggested, but there must be something in writing from the Queen and her lover, and some prior earnest must be given of their chastened hearts in the matter of religion, either by the despatch of plenipotentaries to the Council of Trent or otherwise. Dudley was all eagerness to get the matter settled, and for the next few weeks kept urging the Queen to request the King of Spain’s good offices towards the marriage. But the recognition of the Pope’s Council of Trent was a serious matter and could not be done without the co-operation of Cecil. He had been bought over temporarily to Dudley’s side in appearance by the gift of some vacant sinecure offices, but he saw--as did the Queen in her calmer moments--that the participation of Elizabeth in the Catholic Council would ruin England by destroying the balance upon which its safety depended. So whilst ostensibly countenancing it he artfully