Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/45

 1581.] THE JESUIT INVASION. 29 sion of faith of the most extreme Protestant kind, run- ning through the whole gamut of Calvinist doctrines, and cursing the Roman antichrist, was subscribed at Holyrood, on the 2nd of March, by the King, by Len- nox, by Lord Seton, by the master of Grey, by all the party who then, and in the years which followed, were the leaders or instruments of the Jesuit faction. To so audacious a stroke what reply could be given ? It de- ceived the English Parliament, which was then in ses- sion. It appeared incredible that if Lennox meditated mischief against England, he should have taken a step which would alienate the great Catholic powers. It deceived for a time even Mendoza himself, who de- scribed the confession as the vilest composition ever committed to words, which he could only hope to be a forgery. 1 But it answered its purpose in Scotland. It broke up the party which would have taken arms not out of love for Morton but in fear of Popery, and to Elizabeth it was a fresh excuse for inaction. Rumours were studiously spread, to which the troops at Berwick gave appearance of truth, that the independence of Scot- land was threatened. Morton's correspondence with Bowes was published. He had been betrayed by his secretary, who charged him with having intended to send the King to England. Angus, Mar. Ruthven, Glencairn, Montrose, and Lindsay, held together, pre- pared to rise, till the end of February, but 'jealousies and suspicious changed the state of the cause, and altered Don B. de Mendoza to Philip, March 17, 1581 : MSS. Simancat.