Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/268

 252 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65 a campaign against the African Corsairs. They could be run through the Straits of Gibraltar, and taken direct to Scotland. A proclamation would be issued on their landing that they had been sent by his Holiness for the delivery of the Queen of Scots. Lennox could take the command, and march immediately for England ; while the Duke of Guise would make a diversion by throwing himself, with a few thousand French, into Sussex. In the most earnest manner they deprecated delay. Delay meant feebleness of purpose, and feeble- ness of purpose, discovery. It was now May. The expedition ought to be undertaken by the end of the summer at latest. The interval could be employed in carrying money and stores into Dumbarton and Blackness. 1 De Tassis, like Mendoza, was tied by his instructions; but he was more sanguine of success, and more gener- ally encouraging. The decision however, he said, must rest with his master ; and while Crichton went to Rome to report progress to the Pope, Holt, with another com- panion from Rheims, prepared to go into Spain, and exert their eloquence upon Philip. Mendoza, who had sufficient difficulty in controlling the Jesuits in England, found his task made all but im- possible when they were made acquainted with the con- ference in Paris. In their impetuous imaginations, the Pope's legions were already in the field, and the armies of the Philistines flying before the blast of the Arch- 1 Tassis to Philip, May 18 and May 29 : TEULET, vol. v.