yet entitled by her material grandeur. At last she had done with Rome,
and her expansion dated from that moment.

Holland and England, by the very condition of their existence, were sworn
foes to Philip. Elizabeth stood excommunicated of the Pope. There was
hardly a month in which intelligence was not sent by English agents out
of the Netherlands and France, that assassins, hired by Philip, were
making their way to England to attempt the life of the Queen. The
Netherlanders were rebels to the Spanish monarch, and they stood, one
and all, under death-sentence by Rome. The alliance was inevitable and
wholesome. Elizabeth was, however, consistently opposed to the
acceptance of a new sovereignty. England was a weak power. Ireland was
at her side in a state of chronic rebellion--a stepping-stone for Spain
in its already foreshadowed invasion. Scotland was at her back with a
strong party of Catholics, stipendiaries of Philip, encouraged by the
Guises and periodically inflamed to enthusiasm by the hope of rescuing
Mary Stuart from her imprisonment, bringing her rival's head to the
block, and elevating the long-suffering martyr upon the throne of all the
British Islands. And in the midst of England itself, conspiracies were
weaving every day. The mortal duel between the two queens was slowly
approaching its termination. In the fatal form of Mary was embodied
everything most perilous to England's glory and to England's Queen.
Mary Stuart meant absolutism at home, subjection to Rome and Spain
abroad. The uncle Guises were stipendiaries of Philip, Philip was the
slave of the Pope. Mucio had frightened the unlucky Henry III. into
submission, and there was no health nor hope in France. For England,
Mary Stuart embodied the possible relapse into sloth, dependence,
barbarism. For Elizabeth, Mary Stuart embodied sedition, conspiracy,
rebellion, battle, murder, and sudden death.