telling  him  to  do  his  best  to  send  Alentjon  away  in  a  good  humour,
for  it  was  quite  impossible  for  her  to  marry  him.
Lord  Harry  assures  me  that  he  is  told  by  trustworthy  people
that,  during  the  conversations  between  the  Queen  and  Alen9on,  she
pointed  out  to  him  how  difficult  it  would  be  for  them  to  live
together  if  he  were  of  a  different  religion  to  her,  whereupon
Alen9on  assured  her,  with  an  oath,  that  he  would  abandon  his
religion  for  the  sake  of  her  love ;  which  would  be  difficult  to  believe
if  the  French  themselves  did  not  say  that  Alen9on  had  won  the
four  best  dukedoms  in  France  by  having  taken  the  side  of  the
Huguenots  against  his  brother,  and  to  be  king  of  England  would
be  a  greater  prize  still.*  He  hears  mass  every  day,  and  although  he
eats  fish  on  Fridays  and  Saturdays,  on  the  eve  of  St.  Thomas,  which
was  a  fast  day  and  a  vigil,  he  publicly  supped  on  meat.  The
Queen  has  hitherto  refused  to  give  him  a  final  reply  with  regard
to  the  marriage,  but  she  now  desires  to  do  so  with  a  decided
negative,  which  he  is  evading.  Alen9on's  most  intimate  friends
say  that  he  has  greatly  cooled  lately  in  the  idea  of  going  to  the
Netherlands,  so  much  so  that  they  assert  that  he  would  prefer
rather  to  tarry  here  than  go  thither  or  to  France,  as,  in  addition
to  the  suspicions  he  has  of  his  brother,  he  has  not  a  penpy  to  spend,
having,  as  the  French  themselves  confess,  pawned  the  revenues  of
his  dukedoms  for  the  next  three  years.
