The envoy, who was a _persona grata_ in England, where he had long resided as ambassador, was received with marked distinction, and had eight audiences of the Queen. All the old arguments and hair-splittings about the observance of religion were gone over again. Sometimes the Queen appeared to give way, but the next day she would be obdurate again. Cecil himself was puzzled at her nimble gyrations, and wrote to Walsingham that “the conferences have had as many variations as there have been days.” The Queen was withal gracious and full of protestations of friendship, and at the last audience the real hint was given which justified de Foix’s mission. After finally satisfying him that if Anjou came he must conform to the Anglican Church, Cecil asked whether his instructions extended beyond the marriage negotiations. De Foix said they did not, but this was enough, and he posted back to Paris with the hint, leaving Cavalcanti behind him. Before leaving, on September 6th, he suggested to Cecil that it might be well to send Sir Thomas Smith, who was well known in France, or some one else, to discuss the marriage, or a treaty, with the Queen-mother. In the meanwhile, a somewhat curious change had taken place in Paris. Charles IX. had been informed, probably at the instance of the Catholic party, that the Huguenots, seeing Anjou so bigoted, were now opposing Elizabeth’s marriage with him, and were proposing to her a match with Henry of Navarre, who was engaged to the King’s sister Margaret. There was little or no foundation for this, but it served its purpose and frightened the King into distrust of the Huguenots; and when de Foix arrived in Paris he found Charles IX. coolly acquiescent in the Queen’s refusal, and on the watch for signs of treachery from the Protestant party. Walsingham, in Paris, soon felt the effect; and on the 26th of September he wrote to Cecil that the Anjou marriage was absolutely at an end, and he was in great alarm to see that France and Spain were growing friendly. The smallest demonstration of this was sufficient to bring Elizabeth to her knees, and she at once sent Walsingham instructions to revive the marriage negotiations on any terms. He was even to give way on the crucial point of religion.[68] The very day upon which he received this letter, namely the 8th of October, his great confidant (probably Coligny) had told him how anxious the Queen-mother was for her son, the King, not to break with Elizabeth, and had asked him how she could bring about a match between the English Queen and her youngest son, the Duke of Alençon. Her interlocutor had scouted the idea, he said, but the seed was sown, which was probably all that Catharine wanted. Anjou had now openly stated that under no circumstances would he marry Elizabeth, even if she gave way on all points, so that he was no longer of any use as a piece in the game. Walsingham accordingly wrote back to Elizabeth