He said that if he gave Philip money
Philip would put it in his pocket and laugh at him. Not one maravedi
would he give till a Spanish army was actually landed on English shores,
and from this resolution he was not to be moved.
To Philip it was painfully certain that if he invaded and conquered
England the English Catholics would insist that he must make Mary Stuart
queen. He did not like Mary Stuart. He disapproved of her character. He
distrusted her promises. Spite of Jesuits and seminary priests, he
believed that she was still a Frenchwoman at heart, and a bad woman
besides. Yet something he must do for the outraged honour of Castile. He
concluded, in his slow way, that he would collect a fleet, the largest
and best-appointed that had ever floated on the sea. He would send or
lead it in person to the English Channel. He would command the situation
with an overwhelming force; and then would choose some course which
would be more convenient to himself than to his Holiness at Rome. On the
whole he was inclined to let Elizabeth continue queen, and forget and
forgive if she would put away her Walsinghams and her Drakes, and would
promise to be good for the future. If she remained obstinate his great
fleet would cover the passage of the Prince of Parma's army, and he
would then dictate his own terms in London.
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