“Madame, who knows better than yourself?”
“The King, your master,” said Catherine ironically, “knows better than I everything that passes in France. What means would he employ to overcome the rebellious Protestants?”
Alva resorted to the Socratic method, hoping to involve the queen in the toils of argument.
“Has the religion gained or lost since the peace of Amboise?” he inquired insidiously.
“It has gained,” replied she.
The answer, in Spain’s eyes, was a condemnation of the policy of France; it was a thorn in the road of the queen’s ambitious hopes of marriage alliance. In her exasperation, Catherine upbraided her daughter for out-Spaniarding the Spaniard.
“I am a Spaniard, I admit,” said Elizabeth. “ It is my duty.”[975]
Catherine broached anew the possibility of Philip II consenting to have his sister marry her Benjamin—Henry duke of Orleans—and conferring Artois as dowry upon the pair.
“The king would never consent to sacrifice one of his provinces,” said Alva brusquely.