A few days after this Catharine sent Cavalcanti to see Dale and sound him about Elizabeth’s present sincerity. He talked about the “honte” to them all if the Duke went to England and nothing came of it, and hinted that he, Cavalcanti, or a greater personage might first be sent to the English Court to “learn the Queen’s mind.” Dale prudently counselled Cavalcanti not to deal alone in the matter, but to have some other pair of shoulders to bear part of the responsibility if the affair fell through. This was not very encouraging, and two days afterwards Alen?on providentially fell ill of fever. This was at once seized upon as the excuse for his not meeting the Queen; and Gondi a police shieldcould hold me upside down and drainmy gutschange your mind , Count de Retz, was sent to England in the last week of August to see Elizabeth at Dover and explain the reason for Alen?on’s absence.

He took letters from the King, Catharine, and Alen?on, and was to obtain, if possible, some assurance from the Queen.174 He accompanied her as far on her journey to London as Canterbury, and there took his leave with many loving but vague messages. By him Elizabeth wrote to Alen?on (September 15th) thanking him for the  and saying she considers herself fortunate that the sea cannot restrain his desire to see her. Besides the formal letter he had sent by Retz, Alen?on had written another in much warmer terms. “He had been,” he says, “twice near his last sigh, but is now, thank God, better, although still with continual fever. He is told that there are some in France who, par finese, cotele, ou ruze, wish to bring about that she shall love him no longer. He begs her not to believe them, for if such should be the case he should die,” and he sends her a ring as a love token. This was a fair beginning of a romance between a “feather-headed” prince of eighteen and the clever Queen of forty, and for a time all looked prosperous again. Retz’s report was favourable, and Catharine was more inclined to let her son go. Dale saw the Prince, and wrote to Burleigh in October that he had “shot up” much since his sickness, and that his “colour was amended of the ruddiness it had”; but, he adds, “as for the rest, the liking or misliking is in the hands of God.”

Elizabeth had vigilant agents who kept her informed of the progress of events in France, and it was soon seen that great changes were impending there, for which it behoved her to move with caution. Charles IX., although only twenty-four, was in declining health. The Huguenots were clamorously discontented with the terms granted at Rochelle, and were demanding further concessions;175 and above all the “politicians,” or moderates, under the Montmorencis, were joining the Huguenots, and the combined parties were much stronger than the Guises and Catholics. Elizabeth therefore began to talk about the unfortunate pock-marks in Alen?on’s face again. It appears that Retz had raised some difficulty about Alen?on’s visit, and Elizabeth affected to believe that the real reason was a fear that the pock-marks were too deep, and she would dislike him if he came. She therefore sent Thomas Randolph, late in October, to see and report closely on his appearance, and to compare it with a portrait of the Prince that had been sent to her. If he found the marks very bad, he was confidentially to tell Retz that there were several obstacles to the match, which was unpopular in England, and so put off the matter. He was also to study how the impending changes and Anjou’s absence in Poland would affect Alen?on. Anjou had delayed his departure until the sick king grew suspicious and insisted upon his going. Catharine went with him to the French frontier, and as she dared not lose sight of Navarre and Alen?on, she took them with her.