45 XXIX. his cipher, and thought he was safe." On a further CHAP. examination, his secretary disclosed the name of another person employed; and this man, Barker, was immediately secured, and the next day revealed the fact, that the money came to the duke from the French ambassador." Charged with having taken. away the cipher from the mat, Norfolk, too eager to contradict his secretary, unwarily let drop that it had been and might be between tiles." This roused Hygford to recollect a peculiar hiding place of that description, which no words would elucidate,48 but which he could find if taken there. Dr. Wilson accompanied him to Howard House, and obtained it." The money was satisfactorily traced to the French ambassador,50 and proved Norfolk's intercourse with 44 Sir Thomas Smith and Dr. Wilson, on 3d September, informed lord Burghley, As much haste as we made, yet had the duke gotten away the alphabet of the cipher, who therefore thinketh that nothing is known, altho your lordship may perceive nothing will be long hid.' 45 Mr. Barker delivered me the money, by my lord's commandment.' Exam. 4 September, p. 70. 6 46 Exam. of W. Barker, 5th September, p. 87. A little packet of letters was put in the midst of the money, by Mr. La Motte, who prayed him to get it conveyed to M. De Verac, in Scotland.' ib. 88. 47 Smith and Wilson's letter of 9th September, p. 89. 48 We calling Hygford before us, at the first he said that was before the house was full built; yet after a night he remembered himself, and said it might be in such a place, but could not so demonstrate it, that any man might find it.' ib. 49 6 Whereupon Dr. Wilson went this day with him and one of his own keepers, and found it indeed betwixt two tiles in the roof, so hid as it had not been possible to have found it otherwise than by unripping all the tiles, except one had been well acquainted with the place." Lett. ib. 50 After Barker's evidence had proved this, p. 87, 88, the ambassador, De la Motte Fenelon, avowed it and claimed it.' Smith's lett. of 9 Sept. p. 88. The next day Barker made a fuller detail of his conferences with the French envoys. M. Motte told me what a pleasure I should do him in sending money to relieve the poor lords of the Scottish queen's side, for the king, his master, would not see her forsaken, whatsoever other matter takes place.' Murd. 91. BOOK II. 53 him and his court.51 But altho the duke had dealings and objects in connection with the government of France, so dear to it as to induce its sovereign to talk of even personally interfering for him, if his life became endangered," and therefore treasonable as to his own allegiance; 3 yet it is remarkable that this was a separate line of disloyal intrigue, which was no ramification of the real plot. It was a political web of French policy, that was weaving at Paris, for its own purposes, in a selfish and jealous distinction from the papal and Spanish conspiracy,54 with which France, tho apprised of, did not cordially 51 Barker stated, 'I told my lord what request the ambassador had made. He answered, he would be loth any of his should have the carrying of it.' Barker then went to La Motte, to wish well to the business he was about, and to remember my lord, who was very desirous of the same. He said, true it was, he was come about such a business as might both do my lord good and all his friends :' but added, with the cautious avoidance of putting a master into the power of his servant, For him especially to deal, he had no commission.' 'The Sunday after, my lord told me there was come a merchant from Shrewsbury, that had brought butter, who might be a good messenger for the money.' Barker Exam. p. 91. 52 De Foix, who had brought the money, returned to the French king, and, on 25th September 1571, wrote thus from Blois to La Motte, on the subject of the duke of Norfolk: The king has thought that it was not yet apropos to employ himself towards the queen of England for him, for fear of rather offending her than assisting him, and supposing that they will not go beyond the commencement of a legal process, and detaining him in prison; BUT if they proceed to touch his person, his majesty is resolved de s'emploier pour lui de tout son pouvoir. Murray's MS. Fenelon's Correspondence. 53 The objects of the French court appear from the letters of Charles IX. to La Motte Fenelon, his ambassador, to have been the assisting in Mary's release or escape; the encouragement of her marriage with Norfolk; the support of her party, both in England and Scotland; the prevention of her son James being taken to Spain, or even to London; and the keeping Scotland from any confidential alliance with England, and leading it to maintain all its antient relations with France. The two letters of 27th July 1569, and others after that date, particularly urge these points. 54 That the duke of Alva desired his plans with Ridolfi and the English conspirators to be kept secret from France, we see by Bailly's evidence, already cited. join in, because Spain, its rival, was the chief mover, An 55 This important information was not given by Barker till the 10 Oct. 1571. He saith, the duke of Norfolk was named by these characters, forty; and my lord Lumley, by thirty. That he saw the letter N° 30, at the house of the bishop of Ross; and that the letter O served for sir Nicholas Throckmorton; and by that character, O, the duke of Norfolk did write to him, and so did the bishop of Ross.' Exam. p. 112. Hygford had, on 22d September, confessed a great correspondence between Norfolk and Lumley, touching the said duke's troubles.' p. 73. p. 56 I went to him once or twice by my lord's commandment.' Murd. 92. His examiner, Smith, at first remarked of Barker, that he was somewhat obstinate, or foolish rather,' p. 89; afterwards, I think he will confess so much as his wit will serve him. As it appeareth he hath been the most doer betwixt the duke and other foreign practisers.' p. 95. On 20 Sept. Smith wrote to Burghley: We have good hope at last that we may come home. Bannister knoweth little. Barker was the common doer in the practice, but rather chosen for zeal than wit. What he hath done, is opened at the last in some form, with our help; for of his own wit he could never have done it, it is so confused and without order.' ib. 101. 57 Lett. 19 Oct. in Lodge, p. 60. He added, 'I am sorry to see so many troubled therein.' CHAP. XXIX. II. BOOK provost marshal: so difficult is it, under a constitutional government, where the guilt must be proved to the satisfaction of others, before the punishment can be inflicted, to attach the knowlege you may derive from secret information or well-grounded inferences, to particular individuals, by legal evidence, and with testimonial certainty. It did indeed expand beyond either the supposition or the wishes of the cabinet, for it was found to embrace several of the head nobility and gentry of the kingdom, tho chiefly Roman Catholics, as the more unwilling, than slow-minded, Barker gradually disclosed them in his successive examinations. That the duke of Norfolk had concealed the secretary of the bishop of Ross, when the government sought for him ;58 that lord Cobham knew how important such a seclusion was,59 and therefore was not ignorant of the dangerous practices; and that this lord's brother had secreted Ridolfi's dangerous letter when Bailly was apprehended, and thereby saved the duke," had been stated by Hygford. The same person also disclosed, that in one of Mary's 58 And touching Cuthbert, the bishop's secretary, my lord told me when privy search was made for him, that he had conveyed him to a close corner, where he should hardly be found.' H. Exam. 28 September, p.74. 50 Lord Cobham would many times say unto me, that it behoved my lord to fear the taking of Cuthbert, for upon him rested my lord's utter undoing, meaning, that if he were apprehended, he might disclose all.' ib. 75. On 1st October he detailed these cautions more particularly. p. 78, 79. 60 Thomas Cobham thus said to me: I have now paid my price for the duke your master. While my brother was examining the said Charles, I stole away the letters that lay in a window, and opened the packet, wherein I found a letter of my Lord of Westmoreland, and a letter of Ridolfi's, both which I took out, closed up the packet again, and so laid it where I found it. If I have done your master good, let him thank me for it.' ib. 78. XXIX. letters, to the duke, about the preceding Midsum- CHAP. mer, She complained of the little aid that she found any 961 62 in France, and that she had better hope of Spain than other friend :' and that the queen, after his arrest, had proposed to Norfolk to make her escape to France, and would so quit the town, if he approved of it; but that he had deemed it too hazardous for her to attempt. For himself, he thought he was in no danger." A strange instance of selfflattering infatuation." 61 Exam. 82. 62She wrote to him a little before Christmas, that she had made way by friendship in my lord Shrewsbury's house, to escape the danger of her enemies; and that if he could find the like means to get out of the Tower, she would adventure herself, otherwise not; for she would not leave him in danger for any safeguard of her own life.' p. 81. She had made a friend there in the house, and that she could escape thence, and all things were in readiness, both men and post horses, to carry her into Sussex, whence she would be shipped into France, and that she only stayed upon understanding of his pleasure in the same.' ib. 83. 63 My lord's answer to this was: 'How perilous it would be for her to escape the danger of the place where she was, notwithstanding the fair promises of friends, which peradventure would leave her when the matter came to the push; and as for himself, he neither could nor would hazard to get out of prison, considering that there was no great danger as to him.' ib. 81. 64 The voluntary statements of the bishop of Ross in his 'negotiations,' fully involves Norfolk in the knowledge and sanction of the plots carrying on between Mary, the pope, and Alva, with Ridolfi, the prelate, and others. He details the circumstances minutely; and as he was Mary's most confidential agent, and a principal conspirator, he was one of those who best knew the real facts, and his narrative exhibits to us a spontaneous disclosure of them. See it in Anderson, vol. 3. p. 150-188, as to the duke. His work occupies the whole volume. |