been seen!" "But for all this great labor,"
says the caustic chronicler, "for their yoong maister long looked for
coming so surely into the world, in the end appeared neither yoong
maister nor yoong maistress, that any man to this day can hear of."[126]

The queen's disorder proved to be a dropsy. But, notwithstanding the
mortifying results of so many prognostics and preparations, and the
ridicule which attached to it, Mary still cherished the illusion of one
day giving an heir to the crown. Her husband did not share in this
illusion; and, as he became convinced that she had no longer prospect of
issue, he found less inducement to protract his residence in a country
which, on many accounts, was most distasteful to him. Whatever show of
deference might be paid to him, his haughty spirit could not be pleased
by the subordinate part which he was compelled to play, in public, to
the queen. The parliament had never so far acceded to Mary's wishes as
to consent to his coronation as king of England. Whatever weight he may
have had in the cabinet, it had not been such as to enable him to make
the politics of England subservient to his own interests, or, what was
the same thing, to those of his father. Parliament would not consent to
swerve so far from the express provisions of the marriage treaty as to
become a party in the emperor's contest with France.[127]

Nor could the restraint constantly imposed on Philip, by his desire to
accommodate himself to the tastes and habits of the English, be
otherwise than irksome to him. If he had been more successful in this
than might have been expected, yet it was not possible to overcome the
prejudices, the settled antipathy, with which the Spaniards were
regarded by the great mass of the people, as was evident from the
satirical shafts, which, from time to time, were launched by
pamphleteers and ballad-makers, both against the king and his followers.

These latter were even more impatient than their master of their stay in
a country where they met with so many subjects of annoyance. If a
Spaniard bought anything, complains one of the nation, he was sure to be
charged an exorbitant price for it.[128] If he had a quarrel with an
Englishman, says another writer, he was to be tried by English law, and
was very certain to come off the worst.[129] Whether right or wrong, the
Spaniards could hardly fail to find abundant cause of irritation and
disgust. The two nations were too dissimilar for e