328 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. immediately, they would disband in mutiny. Present temporary assistance was all that had been so far hinted at. The Queen stopped them at once with an absolute refusal. Declining to give a sixpence, she consented, only with extreme difficulty, that Sir Robert Bowes might, if he liked, lend the King 300^. ' I pray you,' said Walsingham, in informing him of her liberality, ' stretch what you may for the perform- ance hereof, weighing the necessity of the cause, and how much it concerns her Majesty's service, that the guard should not as yet be discharged. If her Majesty should happen to leave the burden upon you, I will not fail to see you myself discharged of the same.' 1 A fortnight then passed while the Queen was con- sidering the reply which she should make to their main demands. The answer, when it came, would have been unfavourable without fresh provocation ; but some one had whispered to her that Leicester, who had been planning a marriage for his son with Lady Arabella, had been feeling his way also towards finding a wife for James in one of his step-daughters. If there was a person in the world whom Elizabeth loathed it was the woman who had dared to become the wife of the only man that she had thought of seriously for herself. She was in such a fury when she heard of it that she said she would rather see James stripped of his crown than wedded to that she- wolf's cub. If there was no other way to check the pride of her and her traitor Leicester, "Walsingham to Bowes, May 9 : MSS. Scotland.
