472 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61. rival the Queen of Scots. It seemed however like treason to suspect a Christian prince of such a wicked purpose, 'nor was there sense nor likelihood/ Sussex said, ' that a prince possessed of her godly, virtuous, wise, beautiful, and peerless person would seek another so far inferior.' England stood at present in great and obvious danger, which in some way or other must be encountered. France would either annex the Nether- lands, and with this vantage recover Scotland, and ultimately ruin England, or Alencon would join Don John as he threatened. The Prince of Orange would then be destroyed, and Spanish despotism become su- preme. 1 The flattery with which Sussex set aside the peril from the charms of the Queen of Scots showed his eager- ness to persuade his mistress. From the beginning of the reign, he had been constant to the opinion that marriage only could save her throne. She did not pre- tend that she desired it. She nourished a hope that* under cover of courtship, she might make some political alliance with Alenon, which would answer equally well. 2 But Sussex would not encourage what he believed to be a vain expectation. ' In regno nulla est societas,' he wrote to Walsingham. ' Alengon is said to be dealing sin- cerely, and looks to be sincerely dealt with ; ' ' he looks to be great by her Majesty in the Low Countries, and it would be dishonour and peril to him to return home without either one or the other. What it shall please 1 Sussex to Elizabeth, August 28, I 2 Sussex to Walsingham, August 1578: LODGE. | 29 ; MSS. Holland.
