pain; when it failed, his son and big
favorite forced his hand to bring him round to France. His envoys at
Paris, the Earl of Carlisle and Lord Holland, found themselves confronted
by Cardinal Richelieu, commissioned, together with some of his
colleagues, to negotiate the affair. M. Guizot, in his _Projet de
Mariage royal_ (1 vol. 18mo: 1863; Paris, Hachette et Cie), has said
that the marriage of Henry IV.'s daughter with the Prince of Wales was,
in Richelieu's eyes, one of the essential acts of a policy necessary to
the greatness of the kingship and of France. He obtained the best
conditions possible for the various interests involved, but without any
stickling and without favor for such and such a one of these interests,
skilfully adapting words and appearance, but determined upon attaining
his end.

The tarryings and miscarriages of Spanish policy had warned Richelieu to
make haste. "In less than nine moons," says James I.'s private
secretary, James Howell, "this great matter was proposed, prosecuted, and
accomplished; whereas the sun might, for as many years, have run his
course from one extremity of the zodiac to the other, before the court of
Spain would have arrived at any resolution and conclusion. That gives a
good idea of the difference between the two nations--the leaden step of
the one and the quicksilver movements of the other. It also shows that
the Frenchman is more noble in his proceedings, less full of scruple,
reserve, and distrust, and that he acts more chivalrously."

In France, meanwhile, as well as in Spain, the question of religion was
the rock of offence. Richelieu confined himself to demanding, in a
general way, that, in this matter, the King of England should grant,
in order to obtain the sister of the King of France, all that he had
promised in order to obtain the King of Spain's. "So much was required,"
he said, "by the equality of the two crowns."

The English negotiators were much embarrassed; the Protestant feelings
of Parliament had shown themselves very strongly on the subject of the
Spanish marriage. "As to public freedom for the Catholic religion," says
the cardinal, "they would not so much as hear of it, declaring that it
was a deaign, under cover of alliance, to destroy their constitution even
to ask such a thing of them." "You want to conclude the marriage," said
Lord Holland to the queen-mother, "and yet you enter on the same paths
that the Spaniards took to break it o