ter offered his
help--for he knew the match was unlikely--and soon Catherine de Medici's
agents were busy by Elizabeth's side. Elizabeth, as usual, was coy and
maidenly. She was too old, she said, the thought of marriage was
shocking to her; but, withal, the courtship went on actively. Anjou's
charms and rumoured gallantries were the staple gossip at her court, and
Elizabeth never tired of hearing praises of her young suitor.

But soon the Guises and the Catholic League took fright, and urged Anjou
not to be drawn into a match with a heretic too old for him. Better,
said they, win England by force and marry Mary. To England the marriage,
or a similar one, seemed really necessary. The Catholics at home and
abroad were busily plotting against Elizabeth. Philip and Alba were
ready to connive at her murder; the Protestants in Holland and France
were powerless, and this match with Anjou seemed the only way to meet
the danger. Anjou, under Catholic influence, was scornful, whilst
Catherine, anxious for the greatness of her favourite son, was in
despair at his "assottedness."

Lord Buckhurst went, as ambassador to Paris, to forward the match in
March 1571; but it soon became evident that Elizabeth could never
concede the terms demanded by the French on religion. For many months
the Huguenots, and Walsingham, as Elizabeth's ambassador, tried to
reconcile the differences; and Catherine's agents in England laboured
hard in the same cause. Elizabeth herself was ambiguous, though loving,
and sometimes even Anjou was almost persuaded by his mother to accept
the English crown matrimonial at the price demanded. For Elizabeth it
was necessary to keep up the pretence at all costs, for the Spaniards
were plotting her murder; and to split the Catholic party whilst
secretly aiding the rebel Netherlanders seemed her only chance of
safety. On one occasion, when Spain and France drew together, Elizabeth
professed to be willing to marry Anjou on his own terms; but the prince
grew ever more opposed to the match, and in January 1572, Catherine
suddenly suggested that, as Anjou was so bigoted on religion, her
youngest son, Alencon, might marry Elizabeth on any conditions she
liked.

The lad was but seventeen--a swarthy, pock-marked youth--and Elizabeth
was inclined at first to resent the way in which Anjou had flouted her.
She was thirty-nine, and her vanity was wounded; but yet the friendship
or neutrality of France was vital to her. "How tal