epoch, expressed disapprobation of the schemes of Alencon, and jealousy
of his aggrandizement. It was, perhaps, difficult to decide as to the
precise views of a monarch who was too weak to form opinions for himself,
and too false to maintain those with which he had been furnished by
others. With the Medicean mother it was different, and it was she who
was believed to be at the bottom of the intrigue. There was even a vague
idea that the Spanish Sovereign himself might be privy to the plot, and
that a possible marriage between Alencon and the Infanta might be on the
cards. In truth, however, Philip felt himself outraged by the whole
proceedings. He resolutely refused to accept the excuses proffered by
the French court, or to doubt the complicity of the Queen Dowager, who,
it was well known, governed all her sons. She had, to be sure, thought
proper to read the envoys of the states-general a lecture upon the
impropriety of subjects opposing the commands of their lawful Prince, but
such artifices were thought too transparent to deceive. Granvelle
scouted the idea of her being ignorant of Anjou's scheme, or opposed to
its success. As for William of Hesse, while he bewailed more than ever
the luckless plunge into "confusum chaos" which Casimir had taken, he
unhesitatingly expressed his conviction that the invasion of Alencon was
a master-piece of Catherine. The whole responsibility of the transaction
he divided, in truth, between the Dowager and the comet, which just then
hung over the world, filling the soul of the excellent Landgrave with
dismal apprehension.

The Queen of England was highly incensed by the actual occurrence
of the invasion which she had so long dreaded. She was loud in her
denunciations of the danger and dishonor which would be the result to the
provinces of this French alliance. She threatened not only to withdraw
herself from their cause, but even to take arms against a commonwealth
which had dared to accept Alencon for its master. She had originally