Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/47

 .1563-1 THE ENGLISH A T HA VRE. keeping the Catholics perpetually deluded with false ex- pectations, and of amusing them with hopes of a change which never came. Her resolution about the Scottish succession promised a stormy and uneasy session ; and Cecil before its com- mencement, still uncertain how far he could depend upon her, made another effort to rid the Court of de Quadra. The Spanish ambassador was suspected without reason of having encouraged the Poles. He was known to have urged Philip to violence, and to be the secret support and stay of the disaffected in England and Ireland. Confident in the expected insurrection of the Low Coun- tries, Cecil was not unwilling to risk an open rupture with Spain, which would force Elizabeth once for all on the Protestant side. AYew days before Parliament was to meet, an Italian Calvinist, in the train of the Vidame of Chartres, was passing Durham Place when a stranger, who was loung- ing at the gate, drew a pistol and fired at him. The ball passed through the Italian's cap and wounded an Eng- lishman behind him. The assassin darted into the house with a crowd at his heels ; and the Bishop, knowing no- thing of him, but knowing the Italian to be a heretic, bade his servants open the water gate. The fugitive sprung down the steps, leapt into a boat, and was gone. Being taken afterwards at Gravesend, he confessed under torture that he had been bribed to commit the murder by the Provost of Paris. De Quadra, who had made himself an accomplice after the fact, was required to surrender the keys of his house ; and his steward re