Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/26

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 57 turned the last time from Spain. Cecil, more than over vigilant and especially watchful of Norfolk, sent at once for Higford and required him to decipher the paper. Higford hesitated, and said that he could not do it without the key; afterwards, being required to produce the key and being threatened with the rack, he said that it would be found under the mat at the door of his master's bedroom. Sir Henry Neville was despatched to look for it, and found there, not the key of which he was in search, but another letter in cipher also the letter, unfortunately for the Duke, which the Queen of Scots had written to him preparatory to the mission of Ridolfi. The fresh mystery produced fresh suspicion. Higford, being again menaced with torture, read the first cipher from memory, and this established beyond doubt that Norfolk, who had sworn to Elizabeth ' to deal no further in the Queen of Scots' causes,' was corresponding with and assisting her friends in Scot- land. 1 Sir Thomas Smith and Doctor Wilson, the Master of the Court of Requests, waited upon the Duke and told him that a bag which he had sent to Shrews- bury had miscarried, and asked him for an explanation of its contents. The Duke, not knowing that his cipher 1 ' The words of the ticket deci- phered' : ' You shall receive sealed up in a bag by this bearer, Mr Brown of Shrewsbury, 600 in gold, which must be presently sent to Lowther to be conveyed into Scotland to the Lord Herries, to be sent by him forthwith to Lidington and Grange. This money is shifted for at this present only to relieve their friends, which otherwise for want of money are like enough to revolt ; and there- fore the more speed must be used herein, which I pray you do by all possible means.' Endorsed by Sir T. Smith, to Lord Burghley, Sep- tember 2 : MSS. Domestic.