Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/52

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 57. ation to the intended victim. He had already discovered what it told him, for his own traitorous agent of the Marshalsea, Herle, had found his way among the con- federates. They had a week in which they might have done their work, but they let it pass, and it was then too late. Cecil calmly watched them till he had the clue in his hands to all their proceedings ; and then a company of the City Guard dropped upon the nest, and Mather, Berney, and their friends were transferred to the Tower dungeons. The Spanish ambassador had been forced to leave London before their capture, but he had lingered at Canterbury under pretence of waiting for letters from the Duke of Alva; and on him too the ever-present eye was fixed, penetrating, when least he dreamed of it, into his inmost secrets. Sir John Haw- kins, who was still in the eyes of Philip and his ministers the faithful servant of Holy Church and the Queen of Scots, was sent with Sir Francis Knowles to take charge of him as far as Calais. He persuaded the ambassador that he had duped Cecil into giving him the appoint- ment that he might be of use to his Catholic friends, and towards the garden, minding if they miss these means to slay you with a shot upon the terrace, or else in coining late from the Court with a pistolet. And heing touched with some remorse in so bloody a deed, in discharge of my conscience hefore God, I warn your Lordship of their evil and desperate meaning, and would further declare their whole meaning if I should not he noted of infidelity, being so near and dear to me as they are. For the thanks I deserve I shall, I doubt not, best receive them hereafter at your hands at more convenient time when these storms are past ; but lastly, I require your Lordship, in God's name, to have care of your safety.'