On the 14th Cecil submitted to the Queen the draft answer to be sent to these proposals, and after some alterations were made in it, Cavalcanti started for France with the English terms on the 17th of April. This able State paper will also be found entire in part 2 of the Hatfield Papers (Hist. MSS. Com.), and appears to be a sincere attempt on the part of Cecil to compromise matters, although there are two or three points upon which the Queen probably depended to raise further difficulties if necessary to prevent the match. The marriage was to be celebrated according to the English rites, but Anjou’s ministers might attend as witnesses, so far as might be necessary to legalise the marriage from his point of view. The Duke, however, was not required to act against his conscience if any of the ceremonies were openly offensive to the Catholic religion. Neither he nor his household were to be compelled against their conscience to attend Anglican worship, but the Queen’s consort was expected to accompany her to church at suitable and accustomed times. He was forbidden to attempt to change any of the ecclesiastical laws or customs of England, or to favour those who violated them. He was not to allow, so far as he could help, the ceremonies of the English Church to be despised. He was to have the title of king and his status was to be fixed by the precedent of Philip and Mary, but he was not to be crowned. The Queen would undertake to supply him with such sums from the Treasury as she might consider necessary for the proper maintenance of his position. The French demands with regard to the issue of the marriage were practically conceded, but the demand for a life pension to continue even after the death of the Queen was refused. Matters, however, were not brought even to this point without a great deal of finesse and wrangling between La Mothe and the Queen and many long interviews with Cecil and Leicester. When Cavalcanti was about to depart La Mothe begged the Queen to write a letter to Anjou in answer to one he had sent to her. She, of course, was shocked; she had never done such a thing, the pen would fall from her hand, she would not know what to say, and so on. But the letter was written nevertheless, and a very curious production it is, full of worldly wisdom about the marriage proposals, but with plenty of fulsome flattery of Anjou’s beauty, of his lovely hand, and his gifts of mind and body. She apparently thought herself entitled to a little flattery from La Mothe in return, and sighed that whilst in seven or eight years the Duke would be better looking than ever, she would have grown old. She then asked whether any one had spoken to the Duke about her foot, her arm, “and other things she did not mention,” and said she thought the Duke very _desirable_, to which La Mothe replied, nothing loath, that they were both “very desirable,” and it was a pity they were so long debarred from enjoying each other’s perfections.[60]