Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/537

 1584-] THE BOND OF ASSOCIA TION. Nau's coming was postponed till Gray's message had been digested and his leanings ascertained. Report called him a good Catholic and ' a devoted servant to the Scotch Queen.' Should this be true it was undesirable that ISTau and he should encounter each other. Could Gray be gained over, he held and could reveal the secrets of the Paris conspiracy. He had discussed the details of the invasion with Mendoza and the Nuncio : he know- precisely the views of the great Powers about James : he was master of all their secrets, and as well as any living man could teach Elizabeth how to defeat them. 1 His ostensible mission, when he appeared, was to require the expulsion of the exiled noblemen. If this condition was acceded to, the Earl of Arran was ready to betray to Elizabeth the nature of the offers which had been made to his master by the Catholics, and a defens- ive league might be immediately made between Scot-, land and England, the inhabitants of each country being made free of the other as a prelude to their approaching incorporation. 2 The name of the Queen of Scots was not mentioned in Gray's instructions, nor was it men- tioned either in a letter which Gray brought with him from the King to Burghley. 3 1 The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Queen of Scots, December, 1584: MSS. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Cipher. 2 This concession, it was thought, ' would pleasure England greatly.' Instructions from the Earl of Arran to the Master of Gray, 1584 : MSS. Scotland. 3 The letter is a curious specimen of James's early composition. ' To my well belovit and assurit trusty cousin, my Lord Burley, treasurer. ' My Lorde and Cousin, ' Alexander, the great conquer- our of the worldc, reading one day according to his accustomete manner