Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/263

 1582.] THE JESUITS IN SCOTLAND. 247 Holt meanwhile had carried back to Scotland her 'consent to any measures which Lennox might consider necessary. Crichton, after an interview with the Duke of Guise, joined him in Edinburgh, and brought word that Philip had yielded to the entreaties of the Pope, and had promised, as soon as Lennox had secured the person of the young King, to send an army of liberation to Scotland. The Rheims priests in the vehemence of their eagerness had turned their wishes into facts, and arranged everything. Lennox was to take the com- mand, and after restoring the Church at home, was to cross into Northumberland, where the entire Catholic population would rise to join him. The rest of England would follow, the usurper would be deposed, and the Queen of Scots be carried in triumph from Sheffield to the throne. Whence this brilliant vision of the Spanish invasion rose, Mendoza, when he heard of it, was at a loss to conceive. He supposed that either Crichton had invented the story out of his own head, or had con- strued into a certainty some vague promise of the Pope. 1 ' These holy fathers/ he said, ' though most saintly per- sons, are unfit to deal in affairs of State. They can be trusted in nothing unless they have their message by heart.' 2 He had, in fact, to tell them that they must to the Archbishop of Glasgow, April 7, 1582; LABANOFF, vol. T. 1 ' Yo no dubdo sino que el buen hotnbre le habia de snyo, parecien- dole que con el haberle asegurado Su S d por el mcs de Mayo del ano sistiria con la gente que fuese neces- saria el offreceria a bulto aquel nti- mero.' Don Bernardino al Rey, 26 Avril, 1582 : MSS. Simancas. ' Los cuales aunque tienen ho- noroso zeio en lo de la religion, on pasado quo estuvo en Roma que as- hay entender materia d'estado, sino