France could therefore not afford to quarrel with England, but Anjou and Charles IX. took care to hold Alencon tight, that he might not escape and strengthen the Protestant cause in union with Elizabeth, whilst they still kept up the appearance of marriage negotiations.  Elizabeth was ever on the alert to serve her cause, and in March 1573, said she would go no further in the Alencon match unless the Protestants in Rochelle were allowed fair terms and the siege raised.  Anjou, already tired of the war, consented, and soon afterwards Catherine asked whether Elizabeth would now proceed with the Alencon plan.  The lad had grown much, she said, and his budding beard covered some of his facial imperfections.  It was settled that the prince should make a flying visit to Dover, but soon Catherine began to make fresh conditions.  It would be such a shame to them, she said, if her son went and returned unmarried.

IV.—­The Lovelorn Alencon

In the meanwhile, Alencon’s love-letters to his mature flame grew warmer; but much as Elizabeth liked such attentions, she dreaded to go too far.  Charles IX. was sinking fast, and the next heir was Anjou.  With Alencon for heir-presumptive of France, the position would be changed; and once more the queen began to get doubtful about those unfortunate pock-marks on her lover’s face.  Once Alencon planned with Henry of Navarre to escape from his mother’s custody and make a dash for England on his own account, but Catherine held him firmly.

Both the Huguenots and the French king wished for the marriage, but each party frustrated the other because their objects were different.  When the French ambassador, therefore, asked Elizabeth when Alencon might come to see her, she refused to name a time, because she knew secretly that a great Huguenot movement in France was pending, and she wished Alencon to be there as figurehead at the time—­the very thing that the official French Government wished to avoid.  The projected movement was betrayed and suppressed, and Alencon’s life was for a time in danger; but when Henry III. (Anjou) was seated on the throne, Alencon kept openly a rival court to that of his brother, and the Huguenots around the prince were at deadly feud with the minions of the king.

At last the crisis came.  Alencon escaped from Paris in disguise, pursued by his mother, and, joining the Huguenots in arms, defied the king and the Guises.  France was not big enough to hold both brothers in peace, and Catherine told Alencon that as Elizabeth seemed so ready to help him and his Huguenots, he ought to reopen the marriage negotiations.  But Alencon was useless to England as a counterbalance to Spain unless France herself could be pledged as well, and Elizabeth considered it safest for the time, since that could not be done, to feign a new cordiality with Philip.