[682] Same to same, ibid., 5th August 1557.
[683] Lingard, vol. v., p. 517.
CHAPTER XVI.
AT EVENTIDE.
1558.
Grief, anxiety and disappointment, perpetually assailing a constitution never one of the strongest, brought the Queen to her life’s end before she was forty-three. If her naturally hopeful and buoyant temperament helped her through her bitterest trials, it was a fertile source of sorrows, as one by one, all the things upon which she had set her heart, collapsed like the fabric of a dream.
The loss of Calais inflicted the first mortal blow upon her enfeebled health, but its poignancy was for a time softened by the recurrence of the persistent hope, that even now she was about to give birth to an heir. She had waited till that hope seemed like certainty, and on the eve of realisation, before announcing it to Philip. To leave issue, and so secure a Catholic succession, had been the main incentive to her marriage; she clung to the prospect as a drowning man to a plank, and when it failed her, she would have despaired, had she not been uplifted by the faith and resignation that were stronger than all her trouble. Philip flattering her delusion had sent de Feria to congratulate her on her condition, assuring her that nothing could better console him for the loss of Calais.
Gomez Suarez de Figuera, Count, afterwards Duke, of Feria, destined to play an important part in English affairs during the next few months, was, in so far as Philip ever unbent and allowed himself the luxury of a friend, his most confidential adviser, remarkably outspoken and unceremonious. He had accompanied the King from Spain, and was the one Spaniard who had followed his master’s injunction to the letter, to adopt a manner of life in conformity with English customs and prejudices. So literally did he obey, that he sought and obtained the hand of the beautiful Jane Dormer, the Queen’s favourite, and most trusted, attendant and companion.