Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/269

 1582.] THE JESUITS IN SCOTLAND. 253 angel's trumpet. In the phrase so common in Catholic mouths, it was God's cause, and who could resist ? Cam- pian's blood cried from the ground, and the intercession of the saints below the throne had been heard, and would now be answered. Parsons had intended, after all, to go to Scotland and convert James, but the heat of the confederates infected him. He proposed to accom- pany Holt, to plead with the Spanish King ; and Lennox and Seton determined, if Philip could not be persuaded, to seize James's person at any rate, and send him into France. Mendoza was in distraction. He was himself convinced that a movement of Lennox upon England, or a general Catholic insurrection, would be unsuccessful without Spanish support, or, if successful, would be mis- chievous to Spanish interests. In the Queen of Scots alone he found assistance. The Queen of Scots had learnt wisdom by suffering. Her religious faith was tempered with the understanding that the right side did not conquer without adequate means, and she gave what help she could to bridle the impatience of her friends. 1 But the plot would have boiled over prematurely, and, in the opinion of Mendoza, the recovery of England and Scotland would have from that moment become impos- sible, had not the Spanish post been more expeditious than usual. Invariably, when Philip was called upon to act, he found that the moment for action had not arrived. On hearing of Crichton's proceedings from England, he 1 Mendoza to Philip, May 15 : MSS. Simanca*