Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/320

 304 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [01.65. no talking beforehand. If however his Holiness and the King Catholic are really resolved, you must give notice to a few of the leading nobles to prepare in. secret. I have myself as yet sounded none of them, nor till the Catholic powers are actually moving in this cause are they likely to pledge themselves at all. The fine promises, they say, which were made to them at the rising of the North were never fulfilled. Those who made the venture were destroyed in consequence, and they will undertake nothing till they are quite cer- tain of the help of his Holiness and your master.' 1 Meanwhile Lennox in Paris sustained the March. farce of being a zealous Huguenot, and he carried his hypocrisy and falsehood falsehood any way, whatever was its purpose so far that but for his letter to the Queen of Scots and the distinct intimation of his secretary that he intended to play a double part, it might be doubted whether after all the Queen of Scots herself was not the person that was deceived, whether he had not changed sides like his grandfather and been converted by his interview with Elizabeth. Three weeks after his arrival there came a Scot named Smollet to the English ambassador, Sir Henry Cobham, to say that if it was made worth his while ' he could assure Lennox to the Queen's Majesty in such sort as he should altogether abandon France.' 2 A few days later Smollet came again with a message from Lennox himself, that he wished to devote himself for the future Mary Stuart to Mendoza, February 28, 1583 : MSS. Simancas. 3 Cobliamto Walsiugham, March n : MSS. France.