476 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 67. Sovereigns threatened her. At any and all times she would have preferred to see them subside peaceably under their natural rulers, with a guarantee against vindictive persecution. Could she purchase safety at home and immunity from attacks from abroad, she con- sidered her first duties to be to her own people ; and she would have endured, with regret perhaps but with no inclination to interfere, to see every Calvinist in Europe bound in the tightest fetters which the skill of the Inquisition could forge. Fortunately for the rest of the world, the complete isolation of England was not possible. English Pro- testants could not be prevented from making the cause of ' the religion ' their own ; the Pope refused to aban- don his children who were groaning under the yoke of the English Jezebel ; and Elizabeth was swept, in spite of herself, into the side eddies of the European whirl- pool. She kept clear of the main current. She refused the place which belonged to her at the head of a Pro- testant confederation ; but she bent her genius to neu- tralize with intrigue the coalitions which, in threaten- ing Protestantism, threatened herself also. If she was often insincere, often dishonest, often mean, her object was at worst moderately good, and frequently supremely wise ; and the details of her manoeuvres may be half pardoned for the general rectitude of her purpose. She acted as a woman. She broke her faith as man could never have done without compromising for ever, and irredeemably, his character for honour and truth. It is impossible to feel equal resentment at the worst
