Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/303

 1565.] THE EMBASSY OF DE SILVA. 283 ment, yet all their purposes shall wholly and only tend to make the Queen of Scots Queen of this realm and to deprive our sovereign lady thereof. And in these their proceedings there are two manner of things to be con- sidered, the one of which is far worse than the other. The one is intended by them that, either for malicious blindness in religion or for natural -affection to the Queen of Scots or the Lord Darnley, do persuade them- selves that the said Queen of Scots hath presently more right to the crown than our sovereign the Queen, of which sort be all their kindred of both sides and all such as are devoted to the Papacy either in England, Scotland, Ireland, or elsewhere. The other is meant of them which less maliciously are persuaded that the Queen of Scots hath only right to be the next heir to succeed the Queen's Majesty and her issue, of which sort few are without the realm but here within ; and yet of them not so many as are of the contrary. And from these two sorts shall the devices and practices proceed. ' From the first are to be looked for these perils. It is to be doubted that the devil will infect some of them to imagine the hindrance of our dearest sovereign lady by such means as the devil will suggest to them; although it is to be assuredly hoped that Almighty God will as hitherto He hath graciously protect and pre- serve her from such dangers. ' There will be attempted by persuasions, by bruits and rumours and such like, to alienate the minds of good subjects from the Queen's Majesty, and to conciliate them to the Queen of Scots, and in this behalf the