Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/413

 1583.] EXPULSION OF MENDOZA. 397 Hall before setting out on his journey ; l but he was a loose-tongued blockhead, and betrayed himself on the road by idle speeches. Some one by whom he was over- heard sent notice to the council. He was intercepted and carried up to the Tower, where the rack, or the threat of it, made short work with him. He was craven, and made a full confession. He denounced his father- in-law as his accomplice, and the priest as the instigator of his crime. They were all three tried, found guilty and sentenced to be executed. Somerville strangled himself in his cell ; Arden was hanged at Tyburn, and his head and Somerville's were set on London Bridge beside the skull of the Earl of Desmond. The priest was spared, having paid, it is easy to see, the only price by which he could have saved himself, and undertaken to be a spy. The affair had been of spontaneous growth, . ., T November. unconnected with the main conspiracy. No- thing had come out which connected it with ulterior designs, and de Tassis, when he heard of the story, flat- tered himself that the Queen was on the wrong scent, and that the principal secret was still safe. He was congratulating himself too soon. Accident, immediately after Somerville's death, revealed the whole mystery. The Cheshire Throgmortons were among the stoutest partisans of Mary Stuart in England. Sir Nicholas, a politician chiefly, had saved her life at Lochleven, and as long as he lived had defended her and her title. His 1 MS. endorsed, ' Mr Wilkes touching the cause of Soinerville,' No- vember 7 1 7 : MSS. Domestic.