BOOK II. and from being thus precluded from denying his agency, and from increased apprehensions, his resolution sank into a partial confession, which put the administration in possession, tho not of the whole fact, yet of enough to apprise them that an internal conspiracy was prepared to co-operate with a Spanish invasion as soon as it should land, under the duke of Alva, from Flanders, to overthrow the government.37 He had also in this confession given an intimation, which affected the duke of Norfolk. Three days afterwards he repeated his statement, and amplified it by the revealing fact, that the instructions which had been given by Ridolfi to Alva's secretary, had come from the English duke:39 thus connecting 37 On 2d May, Bailly wrote to Burghley what he chose to disclose, and saving Ross and all his English friends, he acknowleged that Ridolfi had promised to write, after his arrival at Rome; that Bailly had met him at Brussels; that the Italian had thence written to two English lords, advertising them of their safe arrival on the continent, and had delivered the instructions he had brought with him to the duke of Alva's secretary, and had afterwards an interview with Alva himself, very late in the night, who conferred with him, point by point, on the instructions he had brought [from England.] The duke inquired of him the situation of the port; in what time they could assemble their forces; if there were any strong place between London and the port, to impede their coming to London. And altho he hath given him no resolute answer, he assured him he should be very welcome to the pope and the Spanish king, to whom he exhorted him to repair with all diligence; to keep the matter secret, and chiefly from the French; and that on his return, he should have all the assistance and aid that he required.' Of Ross he only mentioned, that Ridolfi's letter to him contained very few words, and to no other end than to deliver the two letters to N° 30 and No 40.′ Murd. 10. The cabinet could not then find out what lords these numbers designated. 6 38 This was, that Ridolfi had written in one of his letters, that Alva did not think that 'HE,' meaning the person to whom it was written, 'was a sound Catholic, wherefore he exhorted him to write to his excellency, and to assure him of that point.' Murd. 10. This person was one of the lords denoted by No 30 and N° 40. 39 He repeated the allusion mentioned in the preceding note, without still explaining who the 'he' applied to. But on the instructions to Norfolk directly with the detail of the scheme for CHAP. the foreign invasion. It was on these fragments of the truth that lord Burghley had written to earl Shrewsbury, and determined to examine the bishop of Ross upon them. The prelate admitted what he perceived it would be useless to deny, that Ridolfi had letters from the queen of Scots to the duke of Alva, the pope, and the king of Spain, and from himself to Alva;' and that the instructions which Ridolfi had taken to this general, went to solicit aid and support of men, and that the application to the pope was for money; but dropping the fact, that these were to operate on England, he, with an artful evasion, declared that the forces were to be landed at Dumbarton or Leith, and the money to maintain and repay what Mary had borrowed of the Italian.40 The prelate would disclose, and the council could penetrate no further. Bailly's confession revealed nothing beyond the fact to which the bishop had given a color, which took off the apparent treason. Norfolk had not yet been explicitly named, and the two numbered peers had not yet been detected. The conspirators were faithful and secret. Their plots Alva he disclosed, that Ridolfi called their giver the duke.' As soon as XXIX. II. BOOK and persons remained as invisible as ever; and the machinations therefore went on in a steady advance to their successful explosion. For three months longer the destructive peril hung over the English government, waiting only Alva's determination to fall upon it; when its vigilance, which had never slept, detected a new circumstance, which began the unravelling and discomfiture of this mystery of iniquity. This was the discovery, by some of its appointed inquirers, that the duke of Norfolk was sending secretly a sum of money and a cipher letter to Edinburgh Castle, which was then resisting the Scottish government." The single fact would have been of small importance, but, combined with the preceding intelligence, it pointed to the duke as an active partisan in supporting those whom both the Scottish and English government considered to be in hostility to them. His secretary, Hygford, was secured and examined;42 owned the fact, and added the long wanted knowlege, that the alphabet of a cipher was in his master's possession."3 The duke was put under arrest; but he had secured 41 On 5th September 1577, Burghley wrote to Shrewsbury, The queen commandeth me to signify to you, that there is discovered most certainly, that the duke of Norfolk has sent towards Scotland a mass of money, with letters in cipher to the queen's party in Scotland and in Edinburgh Castle. The money and letters are intercepted, and Hygford, the duke's secretary, who did write the letters, is taken, and in the Tower confesseth the matter.' Lett. in 2 Lodge, p. 56. He desired the earl, Be now circumspect over your charge. ib. 42 On 2d September 1571, he denied that the duke had sent any money to the opposing lords in Scotland before 29th August last, at which time his grace did cause me to carry 6007. in gold, sealed up in a bag, to be delivered, &c. and to say it was about 507. in silver which a friend left with me.' Hygford's Exam. Murd. 67. 43 The alphabet was left under the mat, hard by the window's side, in the entry towards my lord's bedchamber, where the map of England doth hang. ib. 57. 45 44 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.46 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, 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, and proved Norfolk's intercourse with 50 48 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. 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. 49 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 for BOOK II. 51 53 him and his court. 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,52 and therefore treasonable as to his own allegiance; 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," 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. |