BOOK II. 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. 59 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, 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 60 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. 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. 60Thomas 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. any XXIX. letters, to the duke, about the preceding Midsum- CHAP. mer, She complained of the little aid that she found 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,02 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. 63 She 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. 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. II. CHAP. XXX. FINAL ARREST, TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF THE DUKE 3 BOOK THE duke of Norfolk had been released from the Tower, on the day that Felton was arrested, and had been sent to his own house under the superintendence of sir Henry Neville.' He had become decidedly Romish in his connexions, if not in his religion,' and labored to be popular. But he had too deeply involved himself in the great papal conspiracy, for his secret participation in it to remain undetected, as soon as Burghley's long baffled watching had at last fixed on some of the real agents, who were less dexterous or firm in the concealment of their machinations, than the practised Ross and Ridolfi. Facts Camden's Eliz. p. 127. This was 4th Aug. 1570. Stowe, 667. 2 In the discourse on him, printed about this time, apparently from authority, it is stated: Touching his religion, how he affected, I leave to God and his own conscience; but that he should not be settled in religion, it shall appear by sundry reasons to the contrary; 1. His education of his son under the government of a papist. 2. His chief men of trust being papists. 3. The confidence and reposed trust he has in the chief papists of the realm. 4. His last marriage with a papist. And lastly, this pretended match.' 1 Anders. p. 23. He is in state the second person of this realm. His credit with the nobility and commons is well known to be great; with the one in respect of his alliance; with the other in respect of a kind of familiarity used towards them in public sports, as in shooting and cockfights. A thing not to be discommended, if this match did not discover it to savor of an ambitious and aspiring intent.' ib. 23. XXX. gradually accumulated against him, until they ap- CHAP. peared sufficient for a legal investigation; and on 4th Sept. 1571, he was arrested on a charge of treason, and three days afterwards committed to the Tower. The next day, and on several others, he was interrogated by the privy council; and in his various examinations admitted that Barker was his servant; that he had sent him to De Foix, and knew that he had received the money from the Frenchman, and that he had instructed his own secretary to write in cipher for its delivery.' He confessed also to one interview of an hour with Ridolfi, after supper, about Christmas 1570; that he had written to Mary, and received letters from her, and knew that Bannister, Ross, and Ridolfi, had been with the Spanish ambassador, with a message from himself;10 that he had several times supplied Borthwick with money, and had been apprised by him of the conference between Ross and sir Henry Percy, about taking Mary out of her detention." At another period, he owned that Barker had brought him two letters from the pope, and also one from Ridolfi, which he read and concealed.12 He con There came afterwards to light daily more matters than ever he suspected, and the trust of those which were of his inwardest councils, was, with hope or corruption, overcome.' Camd. Eliz. 127. ' Murden's State Papers, 148, 9. His answers on 8th September, in Murdin, 151. at that time Barker told him he had the money in ? He added, But he never saw the money. sador's; no part his.' Murd. 151, 2. He thinketh that his chamber.' ib. It was the ambas Duke's answers on 22d Sept. in Murd. p. 154. He said Ridolfi asked him to write to the duke of Alva for some money for him, but that he refused. ib. His answer on 8th Sept. Murd. 152. 10 Answer on 31st Oct. ib. 163. 11 Answer, ib. 12 This was in his last confession, on 26th Feb. 1572. Murd. 175. He declared that he was angry with the bearer for bringing them. ib. II. BOOK fessed that he had advised Mary not to give up her castles, when Elizabeth required the measure to be done; and that three plans had been mentioned to him for her escape, of which he had approved the last.13 14 Elizabeth made a formal complaint to the duke of Alva, that the Spanish ambassador in England was exciting her subjects to treasonable insurrection,' and that she had therefore ordered him away;15 and she made this communication to prevent his misrepresentations of her reasons causing any breach between the two countries.16 She added an assertion of her own care to make her actions correspond with her language; and appealed to them as evidence of her integrity;" an intimation which, as the duke 13 Answer, 13th Oct. Murd. 160. He stated on this day, that he ' remembered no letter to Alva for credit for Ridolfi, but if Bannister saith so, he would be loth to deny it.' ib. Of his two agents, he said, 'So long as Bannister was here, he used not Barker: he used Barker till Bannister came again, and then used both.' ib. 162. 14 On 15th Dec. 1571, she wrote to Alva, We need not much to repeat to you, how long we have misliked Gerar Despes, whom the king sent hither in place of signore Guzman da Sylva, a person that served his master very honorably, and with our great contentation. The said Despes hath increased his practices to disturb our state, to corrupt our subjects, and to stir up rebellion; and to promise to such as he finds evil disposed, that the king will aid and maintain them against us.' Murd. 185. 15 As we can no more endure him to continue, than a person that would secretly seek to inflame our realm with firebrands, we have given him order to depart, without entering into any particular debate, whereunto he is naturally given. And this we have done the more quietly, in good order, from the respect we have to the king from whom he came.' Eliz. lett. in Murd. ib. 16 And altho we know that he will boldly affirm many things to cover his imperfections, yet this, we trust, is reason, that for the affirmation of our own intention towards the continuance of good amity with the king, we ought to be best believed.' ib. 17 The queen adds of herself, Who shall as readily perform the same in outward deeds, if just occasion be given us, as we do in words. And so we require You, being a person of understanding, OF HONOR, |