by meet occasions as the fellow wept and sobbed.' CHAP XXI Following up the favourable impression, he wrote again

to the Bishop, that he was between the anvil and the hammer;' but whatever was thought of him, 'his right hand should play Mucius's part before he would break his faith;' 'they should rather rend his poor carcase than he would betray the least tittle of what had passed; He spoke it with sorrow of mind, and he would seal it with his blood,' 'esteeming no torment greater than unjust jealousy conceived of a true friend.' With mild reproaches for the discouraging of his honest service, he said that he looked for consolation at his Lordship's hand, protesting, 'that for any that would maintain he was dealing otherwise than honestly, he would make them liars in their throats.'2

The Bishop was taken in to the extent of again believing Herle to be honest; but the rascality was thrown away so far as practical results arose from it. Baily had told all which Cecil desired to hear, except the names of the English noblemen designated by the ciphers, and these the Bishop saw no reason for trusting to Herle's curiosity. Other and more honourable measures, therefore, had now to be substituted. the 13th of May, Sir Ralph Sadler, Lord Sussex, and Sir Walter Mildmay repaired to the Bishop's house. He was obliged to admit them, and he was then questioned on his servant's confession. He was re

On

quired to tell what he knew about Ridolfi's mission. His previous story served him in good stead. Ridolfi, he said, had carried a petition from his mistress to the Duke of Alva, the Pope, and the King of Spain for

1 Herle to Burghley, April 29.— April 29.-MSS. MARY QUEEN OF MSS. QUEEN of Scots.

2 Herle to the Bishop of Ross,

SCOTS.

1571 May

CHAP XXI assistance against the rebels in Scotland.

1571 May

He was

asked to explain the ciphers 30 and 40.' He first denied any recollection of them. Then he said that 30 was the Spanish Ambassador, and 40 was his own mistress. The examiners enquired what had become of the letters which had been addressed in these figures. He said that he had burnt them. They asked why, and he could give no explanation.2 They knew that he was not telling the truth, but the rack could not safely be applied to an ambassador, especially on mere suspicion, nor could Cecil venture prudently to commit him to the Tower. His papers were sealed up, his servants separated from: him, and he himself placed under the charge of the Bishop of Ely, to whose house in Holborn he was soon after removed. That he had given a false account of the figures was easily ascertained. Don Guerau was asked whether he had ever been designated by the cipher 30. Ignorant of what the Bishop of Ross had said, he answered that he had not. The Queen of Scots was examined at great length whether she had sent any message by Ridolfi, whether she had heard from Ridolfi, and whether she was the cipher 40. She too, knowing as little as Don Guerau, declared boldly that she had sent no message by Ridolfi, that she had never heard from Ridolfi, and had no cipher of any kind in which she corresponded with Ridolfi. Finding, however, by the questions which were put to her that something had been discovered, she was ready-witted enough to say that the Bishop of Ross might have arranged a cipher in her name which she did not know; and when Shrewsbury asked her further whether she had written to the Pope or to the King of Spain, she replied

1 The addresses on Ridolfi's letters to Norfolk and Lumley.

2 Examination of the Bishop of Ross, May 13.-MURDIN.

boldly, that finding herself without hope of support in CHAP XXI England, she had written to all foreign Princes for aid against her rebels.1

But Burghley knew from the confession of Baily that more was meant than aid in Scotland. The contradictions in the several stories taught him to distrust them all, and he found other means, as will be seen, more successful to find the bottom of the conspiracy. The Bishop of Ross was left in imprisonment. Mary Stuart was placed under stricter guard; her servants were locked out of her apartments at night, and only allowed to return to her after daybreak. The real Story, the farce having been played out in the Tower, was hanged. Don Guerau claimed him as a subject of Philip. Elizabeth answered that the King of Spain might have his body if he wished for it, but his head should remain in England.2

The investigation had been simultaneous with the sitting of Parliament, and they came to an end together. The discovery that she was surrounded with treason now rendered it imperative upon Elizabeth to come to a distinct resolution upon her proposed marriage with the Duke of Anjou. The more it was pressed upon her, the more she hated the thought of it. The mocking world outside believed that she was only trifling; yet among her many changes, her own ministers were unable to discover her real wishes.

Here too, as in so many other matters, the historian finds himself staggering among quicksands of falsehood. Burghley and Walsingham alone are to be depended upon as saying what they meant. Some points,

1 Shrewsbury to Burghley, May 18. MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

2 La Mothe, June 9.-Dépêches, vol. iv.

1571

May

CHAP XXI however, can be made out with an approach to cer

1571 May

tainty.

Both the principals first of all detested the marriage in itself, although the force of the political reasons in its favour was felt by each of them. Elizabeth herself believed that when the Duke found himself the husband of an ugly old woman,' he would give her ung brevage de France which would leave him a happy widower in six or seven months. He would then marry the Queen of Scots and be King over the whole island.1

Anjou, on the other hand, in his confidential moments repeated his suspicions of Elizabeth's character, and when there seemed to be a hope that the objections would be found insuperable did not conceal his delight.2

The position so far was not a hopeful one, but the interests at stake were so tremendous, and the pressure exerted upon both Queen and Prince was so heavy, that Anjou was ready to yield, and Elizabeth at times persuaded others if not herself that she might yield also. In France the fortunes of the Huguenots were supposed to depend upon the marriage. It was no

hopeful sign for them that their prospects could turn upon so poor a contingency, but so they judged themselves of their own situation. The marriage was to be the keystone of a policy. If the support of England could be secured to France in a war with Spain, the jealousies of Catholics and Protestants would be superseded by a revival of the old temper of Francis and Henry. Catherine de Medici hated the Protestants,

1 La Mothe, May 2.-Dépêches, estoy el mas contento hombre del vol. iv.

2 Speaking to a lady one day about the marriage, he said, 'La Reyna mi madre muestra tener pena de que esta desbaratado mi casamiento, y yo

mundo, de haber escapado de casar con una puta püblica.'-Don Francis de Alava to Philip, May 11. TEULET, vol. v.

but she hated Spain more. With Elizabeth for an ally CHAP XXI she could revenge St. Quentin and extend the French frontier to the Rhine.

1

On the side of England the advance of the Reformation had been connected at every stage of its progress with an approach to France. The divorce of Catherine of Arragon broke up the ancient European combinations. Henry VIII. became the friend of Francis. Edward was to have married a French princess: a French king had befriended the English Reformers during the Marian persecution, and in the face of the late discoveries, Elizabeth's condition appeared so 'desperate' to Walsingham and Burghley, that they were ready for their own part to agree to any terms' rather than the matter should quail.' Walsingham especially 'challenged to himself no great judgment, but he said that if it proceeded not, he saw at hand the ruin of England;' and he told Catherine that the Duke 'would be welcome there as a Temporal Messias to save them from the mischief of the civil sword.' 2 Some hundreds of letters about it were exchanged during the spring between the French and English ambassadors and their Courts and Sovereigns. The perusal of them leaves an impression that everything turned upon Elizabeth herself. Could the French Court have been satisfied that when the conditions on both sides had been drawn out and agreed to, Elizabeth would have then honestly completed the marriage, she could have asked nothing to which they would not have consented: without that preliminary certainty, they were unwilling to compromise themselves with concessions which might prove to have been made in vain.

Walsingham to Burghley, May 15.-MSS. France.

ELIZ. IV.

Q

2 Walsingham to Burghley, June 21. MSS. Ibid.

1571

May