Saint
Bartholomew, on behalf of the Duke of Alencon, the French King's brother,
a boy of seventeen, still went on; while on the other hand, in her usual
crafty way, the Queen secretly supplied the Huguenots with money and
weapons.

I must say that for a Queen who made all those fine speeches, of which I
have confessed myself to be rather tired, about living and dying a Maiden
Queen, Elizabeth was 'going' to be married pretty often. Besides always
having some English favourite or other whom she by turns encouraged and
swore at and knocked about--for the maiden Queen was very free with her
fists--she held this French Duke off and on through several years. When
he at last came over to England, the marriage articles were actually
drawn up, and it was settled that the wedding should take place in six
weeks. The Queen was then so bent upon it, that she prosecuted a poor
Puritan named STUBBS, and a poor bookseller named PAGE, for writing and
publishing a pamphlet against it. Their right hands were chopped off for
this crime; and poor Stubbs--more loyal than I should have been myself
under the circumstances--immediately pulled off his hat with his left
hand, and cried, 'God save the Queen!' Stubbs was cruelly treated; for
the marriage never took place after all, though the Queen pledged herself
to the Duke with a ring from her own finger. He went away, no better
than he came, when the courtship had lasted some ten years altogether;
and he died a couple of years afterwards, mourned by Elizabeth, who
appears to have been really fond of him. It is not much to her credit,
for he was a bad enough member of a bad family.

To return to the Catholics. There arose two orders of priests, who were
very busy in England, and who were much dreaded. These were the JESUITS
(who were everywhere in all sorts of disguises), and the SEMINARY
PRIESTS. The people had a great horror of the first, because they were
known to have taught that murder was lawful if it were done with an
object of which they approved; and they had a great horror of the second,
because they came to teach the old religion, and to be the successors of
'Queen Mary's priests,' as those yet lingering in England were called,
when they should die out. The severest laws were made against them, and
were most unmercifully executed. Those who sheltered them in their
houses often suffered heavily for what was an act of humanity; and the
rack, that cruel torture which tore