Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/59

 tS^i.] THE JESUIT INVASION. 43 and Scotland, at its present rate of progress, would be ready to lend itself to the Duke of Guise, and to open its ports to the armies which were to avenge the wrongs of Mary Stuart. The Irish part of the great Jesuit conspiracy had failed, though at this time had not yet failed obviously, and Munster and Wicklow were still in flames. The Scotch part of it had been absolutely success- ful. The story must now turn to the third division of the confederates, the soldiers of Christ, whose scene of action was England itself. An account given by one of them of a visit of himself and a companion to the Vatican, will serve as a fit introduction to the invasion of Parsons and Campian. It was towards the close of the Pontificate of Gregory XIII. that two young English Jesuits, Anthony Tyrrell> who tells the story, 1 and Foscue or Fortescue, better known as Ballard, and concerned afterwards in the Babington conspiracy, set out upon a journey to Rome on a noticeable errand. Their object was to learn from the lips of the Pope himself whether ' any one who, for the benefit of the Church and the delivery of the Catholics from their afflictions, attempted to destroy the Queen of England, should have for the fact his pardon.' They halted on their way at the Seminary at Rheims, where they found the fraternity occupied with the same subject as themselves. The preacher of the Easter-day sermon, an English convert, called Elizabeth ' the monster of the world, worthy of deposition,' and 1 Confessions of Anthony Tyrrell, made in the Tower, August 30 and 31, 1586 : MSS. MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS.