r and King of France, which is reported to be almost a
giant's stature."[866] It was not so easy to dispose of the disparity in
years,[867] and perhaps still less of Alencon's disfigurement by
small-pox; for that unlucky prince added this to the long catalogue of his
misfortunes. The course of the treaty for mutual defence was, happily,
somewhat smoother than that of the matchmaking. On the eighteenth of April
the treaty was formally concluded,[868] and shortly after, Marshal
Montmorency and M. de Foix were despatched to administer the oath to Queen
Elizabeth. This solemn ceremony was performed on Sunday, the fifteenth of
June. The deputies were received with every mark of distinction, and the
marshal was publicly presented by the queen with the insignia of the
Order of the Garter.[869] The commission of the French envoys instructed
them to press upon Elizabeth the Alencon marriage as a powerful means of
cementing the alliance; and it empowered them to expend money to the
extent of ten or twelve thousand crowns in buying the consent of those
lords who had hitherto opposed the union. The Earl of Leicester, whose
straightforwardness may have been suspected, was to be tempted by the
special offer of some French heiress in marriage, the name of Mademoiselle
de Bourbon being suggested.[870] But the marriage was not destined to be
accomplished, although the negotiations were kept up until the very time
of the massacre, and Elizabeth sent to Catharine de' Medici her hearty
acknowledgment of the honor she had done her _in offering her all her sons
successively_.[871] At the very moment when the fearful blow fell which
was to render any such marriage impossible, Catharine was planning and
proposing an interview between Elizabeth on the one side, and herself and
Alencon on the other. That the dignity of neither party might be
compromised, it was suggested that the meeting might take place some calm
day on the water between Dover and Boulogne.[872] Elizabeth had
reconsidered her partial refusal, and encouraged the project; the nobles,
the ladies of the court, the council, all favored it; and in a letter
written four days after the streets of Paris flowed with blood, but before
the appalling intelligence had reached him, the French ambassador wrote to
Catharine: "All who are well affected cry to us, 'Let my Lord the Duke
come!'"[873]

[Sidenote: Pope Pius the Fifth alarmed.]

[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Alessandria sent to Paris.]