Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/614

 592 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 67. at a day's notice. The Catholics had once more con- gratulated themselves that their day of deliverance was at hand : once more all had been. broken up. In England itself the party of insurrection was gradu- ally dissolving. Paget and Morley were abroad : Lord Henry Howard and the Earl of Northumberland were in the Tower : Lord Arundel, for whom the Queen had a special tenderness, had been under arrest also for a time, but had been released and had been held in attendance at the Court. That these noblemen had been for many years engaged in active conspiracy ; that they had intended and had deliberately prepared to rebel as soon as Guise should land either in Scotland or England, the correspondence of Mendoza and de Tassis contains the most conclusive proofs. Their proceedings and their purposes had indeed been revealed with suf- ficient clearness by Francis Throgmorton, and they had been received into the Church since the passing of the statute which made it a penal offence. But Elizabeth could not bring herself to punish the son and brother of the Duke of Norfolk. Arundel had been restored in blood ; she had visited him at Framlingham ; she had intended to give him back the dukedom ; for his father's sake she had shown him exceptional kindness, and he repaid her by taking his father's place at the head of the disaffected Catholics. He had denied his guilt, and with the clearest proof of it under her eyes she refused to disbelieve him. He had been present at the opening of the last session of Parliament. The association however and the bill which was founded