Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/17

 CHAPTER LXIII. THE JESUIT INVASION.

WHILE the Irish insurrection was in its infancy, a few weeks after Sanders landed at Dingle, a second emissary charged with a similar mission ap- peared at Holyrood. Esme Stuart, Count d'Aubigny, who had been selected to play over again the game which Queen Mary had begun and lost, was now twenty-three years of age. He had been trained by the Jesuits, and was an intimate friend of the Duke of Guise. As heir of the Regent Lennox, he was near in blood to the crown of Scotland, and was entitled to dis- pute the succession after the King with the House of Hamilton. He was not too old to be James's com- panion. He had qualities of mind and body calculated to give him influence and ascendancy, and he had been drilled with the utmost care for the part which he was to play. To the world generally it was represented that he was going to Scotland to reclaim the Lennox lands there. Catherine de Medici and Henry were made to VOL. XI 1