158 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. under eclipse. The Queen of Scots' ambitions were no objects of interest to the Queen- mother. The policy of France was again ready to be moderate, national, anti-Spanish, and anti- Papal, to be all which England would most desire to see it. It was imperatively neces- sary that Elizabeth should make peace, that she should endure as she best might the supposed ingratitude of Conde, and accept the easiest terms to which Catherine de Medici would now consent. 1 1 A letter of Sir John Mason to Cecil expresses the sense entertained by English statesmen of the necessity of peace : 'My health, I thank God, 1 have recovered, nothing remaining but an ill cough, which will needs accompany senectutem meam to the journey's end ; whereof my care is much lessened by the great care of the many sicknesses that I see in our commonwealth, which is to me more dear than is either health or life to be assaulted with; which would God were* but infirmities as you do term them, ac 11011 potius Kaieoi]9tiai, seu quod genus morbi iis sit magis immorigerum et ad san- andum rebellius ; and that worse is, cum universae corporis partes nobis doleant a vertice capitis usque ad plantain pedis, dolorem tamen (for any care that is seen to be had thereof) sentire non videmur, quod mentis acgrotantis est indicium. A great argument whereof is that in tot Reipublica) difficultatibus editur bibitur luditur altum dormitur pri- vata curantur publica negliguntur ceu riderent omnia et pax rebus esset altissima. The fear of God, whereby all things were wont to be kept in indifferent order, is in effect gone, and he seemeth to weigh us and to conduct our doings thereafter. The fear of the Prince goeth apace after, whereof we see daily proof both by sea and land. It is high time there- fore for her Highness to take some good way with her enemy, and to grow with him to some reasonable end, yielding to necessity cui ne Dii quidem resistunt, et non ponere rumores ante salutem ; and to an- swer our friends in reason, so as rebus foris constitutis, she may wholly attend to see things in better order at home ; the looseness where- of is so great, as being not remedied in time, the tempest is not a little to be feared cum tot coactai nubes nobis minantur, which God of his mercy, by the prayer of decem justi, a nobis longissirae avertat. ' The Queen is expected to go north on progress, whereunto no good man will counsel her. There
