He might hope that the English Catholic laity would accept
him, but he could not be sure of it. He could not be sure that he would
have the support of the Pope. He continued, as the Conde de Feria said
scornfully of him, 'meando en vado,' a phrase which I cannot translate;
it meant hesitating when he ought to act. But he saw, or thought he saw,
that he could now take a stronger attitude towards Elizabeth as a
claimant to her throne. If the treaty of peace was to go forward, he
could raise his terms. He could insist on the restoration of the
Catholic religion in England. The States of the Low Countries had made
over five of their strongest towns to Elizabeth as the price of her
assistance. He could insist on her restoring them, not to the States,
but to himself. Could she be brought to consent to such an act of
perfidy, Parma and he both felt that the power would then be gone from
her, as effectually as Samson's when his locks were clipped by the
harlot, and they could leave her then, if it suited them, on a throne
which would have become a pillory--for the finger of scorn to point at.
With such a view before him it was more than ever necessary for Philip
to hurry forward the preparations which he had already commenced.
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