Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/250

 234 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ten. 65. forbearance of the Catholics, both in England and abroad, had been the fear that on the first sign of dis- turbance, the person in whose interest they would move might at once be put to death. George Douglas's papers and the correspondence in connection with his mission was seen by a spy of Walsingham's in Paris. It was pervaded by a tone of deep hostility to England ; l but in the course of it there appeared symptoms of rising differences between Lennox and the Earl of Arran, and Elizabeth tried to avail herself of the clue to divide the Queen of Scots' party. She commissioned Captain Erringtou, a skilled practitioner in Northern diplomacy, to go down to Edinburgh to bribe Arran, to work on the Protestant fears of Argyle and Gowrie, to advise and, if desirable, to threaten the King, to protest especially against any act which might discredit the legality of his coronation a legality which she herself, when it suited her purpose, had been the first to deny. 2 But Elizabeth had sent too many such mes- sages to Scotland, and they could serve her turn no longer. Errington arrived at Berwick, but he met an intimation there that he would cross the Border at his peril, and he was obliged to return to London. The ladies of the Court watched the effect of the failure November. 1 to Walsingham, Sep- tember, 1581, misdated 1580 in the arrangement of the MSS. MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls Home. 2 Secret instructions to Captain Errington, October 26, 1581 : MSS. Scotland. Notwithstanding the ex- treme care which was observed with these instructions, the Spanish am- bassador was exactly informed of their purport. See his letter to Philip, November 7, 1581 : MSS. Simancas.