VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 197 a private letter, told Edmund Tremayne to let the ships slip out; and Tremayne, with no little fear that he might be called to account, contrived their escape. They sailed half manned. Neither Drake nor Hawkins was allowed to accompany them. They caine too late to strengthen Terceira, or prevent the catastrophe which presently followed there, while Don Antonio, one more victim of Elizabeth's shifting politics, remained in Eng- land to starve. 1 The current of her own humour was setting again towards marriage. She imagined, or pretended, that she now wished definitively to purchase economical safety by the sacrifice of her person. Alencon volunteered to come again to England, and, after some hesitation, his offered visit was accepted. He came down to Calais, to correspond with her before he crossed, while Sion House was put in order for his reception. 2 The sub- stance of the letter which the Queen had written for Mauvissiere and withdrawn, was revived in a despatch to Sir Henry Cobham. She bade her ambas- sador tell Henry that if he would send her a formal promise that Monsieur's expenses in the Low Countries should be borne by France, and that if Spain attacked England she might count on his assistance, 'he might be assured that she meant to proceed to November. 1 Burghley to Walsingham, Au- gust and September, 1581 : DIGGED. Mendoza to Philip, September 7 and September 17, 1581 : MSS. Simancas. Edmund Tremayne to Walsingbam, February 19, 1582: MSS. Domestic, Rolls House. - Mendoza to Philip, October 9; MSS. Simancas. Opposite the name of Sion House Philip wrote, ' solia ser un muy hermoso monasterio.'
