She still hoped that the better sense of mankind would keep
the doctrinal enthusiasts in order. Elizabeth wished her subjects would
be content to live together in unity of spirit, if not in unity of
theory, in the bond of peace, not hatred, in righteousness of life, not
in orthodoxy preached by stake and gibbet. She was content to wait and
to persevere. She refused to declare war. War would tear the world in
pieces. She knew her danger. She knew that she was in constant peril of
assassination. She knew that if the Protestants were crushed in
Scotland, in France, and in the Low Countries, her own turn would
follow. To protect insurgents avowedly would be to justify insurrection
against herself. But what she would not do openly she would do secretly.
What she would not do herself she let her subjects do. Thousands of
English volunteers fought in Flanders for the States, and in France for
the Huguenots. When the English Treasury was shut to the entreaties of
Coligny or William of Orange the London citizens untied their
purse-strings. Her friends in Scotland fared ill. They were encouraged
by promises which were not observed, because to observe them might bring
on war. They committed themselves for her sake.
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