affection; wrote amicable
letters every week to each other; and had adopted, in all appearance,
the sentiments as well as style of sisters. Elizabeth punished one
Hales, who had published a book against Mary's title;[*] and as the lord
keeper Bacon was thought to have encouraged Hales in this undertaking,
he fell under her displeasure, and it was with some difficulty he was
able to give her satisfaction, and recover her favor.[**] The two queens
had agreed in the foregoing summer to an interview at York,[***] in
order to remove all difficulties with regard to Mary's ratification
of the treaty of Edinburgh, and to consider of the proper method for
settling the succession of England; but as Elizabeth carefully avoided
touching on this delicate subject, she employed a pretence of the wars
in France, which, she said, would detain her in London; and she delayed
till next year the intended interview. It is also probable, that being
well acquainted with the beauty, and address, and accomplishments of
Mary, she did not choose to stand the comparison with regard to those
exterior qualities, in which she was eclipsed by her rival; and was
unwilling that a princess, who had already made great progress in the
esteem and affections of the English, should have a further opportunity
of increasing the number of her partisans.

* Keith, p. 252.

** Keith, p. 253.

*** Haynes, p. 388.

Mary's close connections with the house of Guise, and her devoted
attachment to her uncles, by whom she had been early educated and
constantly protected, was the ground of just and insurmountable jealousy
to Elizabeth, who regarded them as her mortal and declared enemies,
and was well acquainted with their dangerous character and ambitious
projects. They had made offer of their niece to Don Carlos, Philip's
son; to the king of Sweden, the king of Navarre, the archduke Charles,
the duke of Ferrara, the cardinal of Bourbon, who had only taken
deacon's orders, from which he might easily be freed by a dispensation;
and they were ready to marry her to any one who could strengthen their
interests, or give inquietude and disturbance to Elizabeth.[*]

* Forbes, vol. ii. p. 287. Strype, vol. i. p. 400.

Elizabeth, on her part, was equally vigilant to prevent the execution
of their schemes, and was particularly anxious lest Mary should form
any powerful foreign alliance, which might tempt her to revive her
pretensions to the crown, and to