284 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. frontier and the north will be much solicited and laboured. There will be attempted tumults and rebel- lions, specially in the north towards Scotland, so as thereupon may follow some open extremity by violence. There will be by the said Queen's council and friends a new league made with France or Spain that shall be offensive to this ^realm and a furtherance to their title ; and it is also likely they will set on foot as many prac- tices as they can both upon the frontier and in Ireland to occasion the Queen's Majesty to continue her charges, thereby to retain her from being wealthy or potent. From the second is not much to be feared ; but they will content themselves to serve notedly the Queen 's Majesty and so to impeach her not to marry ; but to hope that the Queen of Scots shall have issue, which they will think to be more plausible to all men because thereby the Houses of England and Scotland shall be united in one, and thereby the occasions of war shall cease; with which persuasions many people may be seduced and abused to incline themselves to the Queen of Scots.' 1 The several points thus prepared by Cecil for the consideration of the council were enlarged in the dis- cussion which ensued on them. ' By some it was thought plainly that the peril was greater by the marriage with the Lord Darnley than with the mightiest prince abroad ; ' a stranger would have few friends in England ; the Lord Darnley being Cotton. Mtiti. CAUG. 13. 10.
