would have been swept out of existence, and had there- CHAP XXI fore no claim upon the forfeitures.1 It had been discovered after the suppression of the insurrection that multitudes of seditious priests were continually going up and down the country in disguise or hiding in country houses as 'serving men.' The Council proposed that all such persons, wherever found, should be treated as vagrants or Egyptians, that such priests should be pilloried, set in the stocks, or whipt at the cart's tail; and that the gentlemen who entertained them should be deprived of their property. This practically useful measure was not pressed, and lay over for another session. The subsidy was the only matter of importance remaining, and it was rapidly, easily, and freely disposed of. A grant of 100,000l. was voted without a word of opposition, and on the 29th of May the session was at an end. เ As with all Elizabeth's Parliaments, it was brought to a close ungraciously. The Queen said that 'on the 'whole she was tolerably satisfied. Some members of 'the Lower House had shown themselves arrogant and presumptuous, especially in venturing to question her own prerogatives. They had forgotten their duties in wasting time by superfluous speech, and they had 'meddled with matters not pertaining to them nor 'within the capacity of their understanding. The 'audacious folly of this sort deserved and received her 'severest censure.' The majority, however, even of the Commons, she admitted, had conducted themselves creditably; and as to the Lords, half of whose names were in Ridolfi's letter-bag, 'her Highness said that she took 1 13 Elizabeth, cap. xvi. 2 Draft of an Act against Disguises of Priests, April 27, 1571.—MSS. 1571 May CHAP XXI 'their diligence, discretion, and orderly proceedings to 'be such as redounded much to their honour and com'mendation, and much to her own comfort and conso'lation.'1 1571 May Her actions went with her words. She consented to all the measures which had passed both Houses except one; but the Communion Bill, against which the Lords had struggled so hard, and which was identified by Burghley himself with the safety of the Crown, she permitted to drop. Possibly Elizabeth was wise. Many a wavering Catholic may have been won back to his allegiance who, had she passed the bill, would have gone over to disloyalty; and although had she known all the truth she would have spared the Lords the compliments which she lavished upon them, yet there was true statesmanship in her efforts to keep the peace among her subjects, and in her refusing to punish the Catholics for the act of the Pope until they had made it their own by actual treason. It was not, after all, by measures passed in Parliament that Elizabeth's crown was to be saved, and Cecil was working more effectually by other methods. It is time to return to Ridolfi and his mission to the Pope and the King of Spain. Elizabeth, it has been seen, had replied to the commissioners sent by Alva to treat for a settlement, that she would negotiate directly with his master. Sir Henry Cobham, Lord Cobham's brother, was despatched to Madrid with powers to come to terms with Philip; while Ridolfi went ostensibly to Brussels, on Walsingham's recommendation, to make arrangements for the reopening of trade. 1 Journals of the Lords and Commons, reign of Elizabeth.-D'EwES. 1571 April The Duke of Alva had been long looking, as he said, CHAP XXI for some 'ford' by which to enter effectively into the English difficulty. He had failed to find one, and notwithstanding the stolen money, the wrongs, insults, violence, indignities to which Spain had been exposed since the quarrel, he was coming round to quiet methods. The threat of the Anjou marriage, if it did not alarm him as much as it alarmed the Queen of Scots, was a formidable possibility, and to prevent the chance of it was worth the sacrifice of his pride. He was in this humour when Ridolfi arrived at Brussels to lay before him the message of the Queen of Scots and Norfolk. His plan for the invasion was as simple as on paper it seemed most promising. Eight thousand Spanish troops could be collected at Middleburg. They could be silently embarked in the transports with which the necessities of Alva's army kept the harbour crowded, and with a fair wind they would be across the Channel in a night. Six thousand would land at Harwich, two thousand would make North to Aberdeen. The Eastern Counties were ready to rise; Norfolk and the Spanish Ambassador would fly from London raising the country as they went; the Catholic noblemen in Scotland and the North would rise at the same moment; and two armies, each swelling like an avalanche, would advance by forced marches upon London. Lord Derby, according to Ridolfi, had undertaken to bring into the field the whole force of Lancashire and Cheshire. Shrewsbury was in the secret, and had pledged himself to protect the Queen of Scots till the army from Scotland came to her rescue.1 El otro ejercito que viniese de Escocia vendria siguiendo de mano en mano para juntarse con los amigos que se levantaran, y de passada llevar 1571 April CHAP XXI Assailed thus on all sides, taken by surprise and without time to raise a force for her defence, Elizabeth would be taken in a net. The Catholic religion would be restored from the Orkneys to the Land's End, and the Queen of Scots, as Sovereign of the whole island, would dispose as she pleased of the life and person of her oppressor. In such rhetorical fashion Ridolfi prearranged the campaign. Doubtless there were elements of hope in what he said, and the conquest of England was of supreme importance for the security of the Netherlands; but the silent Duke formed no favourable opinion of the messenger, whatever attention he might pay to the message itself. He knew England too well to believe that the enterprise would be so easy. He had learnt something of the toughness of Protestantism; he had a solid respect for established governments, with a distrust equally deep of noisy explosive insurrections. Ridolfi too could not hold his tongue. He was so vain of the part which he was playing that he told his secrets to Chapin Vitelli and the Spanish generals. He struck Alva as too great a fool to have been trusted on a serious errand of such magnitude, and he half doubted whether his professed character might not be his real one, and whether he was more than a spy of Cecil's. The letters of which he was the bearer, however, were genuine; the Queen of Scots' pretensions were a reality; cierta, porque assi la promete quien la Wallia y son todos Catolicos: succede desto que á la Reyna Isabel se le cierra el paso de poder ir á hacer daño á la dicha Reyna de Escocia,’ -MS. endorsed de Roberto Ridolfi. April 1571. Simancas. 1571 April and were Elizabeth out of the way, something indis- CHAP XXI putably might be made of them. Were Elizabeth out of the way-this on reflection seemed to Alva to be the hinge of the matter; but the step which he contemplated was not to be risked on his undivided responsibility, and to Philip, therefore, he proceeded to state at length his private opinion. After sketching generally Ridolfi's proposals, he continued thus: 'I replied that what Ridolfi suggested was full of danger; the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumber'land had tried an insurrection and had failed, and the 'Duke of Norfolk, who was to have joined them, was ⚫ still in partial confinement. Ridolfi assured me that 'Norfolk could leave his house when he pleased, and that the Catholics would not fail a second time if the Pope and one or other of the great Powers would help 'them. He showed me a list of the Confederates, and 'he mentioned July or August as the time when the ' enterprise would be most easy. I asked him what they 'would do if the Queen married the Duke of Anjou. He 'said that the Queen was trifling as usual. She would 'never marry unless she was forced into it, and if it 'became at all likely, the Duke and the other noblemen 'would interfere.1 1 Yet Norfolk and his friends at this very time were assuring La Mothe Fénelon that there was nothing which they desired more than this marriage. 'Ledict Duc,' La Mothe wrote on the 2nd of May, 'parceque je luy avois desja faict quelque communication de ce propos, avec asseurance de la volonté de Voz Majestez vers luy et la Royne d'Escoce, m'a envoyé dire qu'il se sentoit très obligé à Voz Majestez de la consideration |