Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/264

 2$d &Z1GN OF ELIZABETH. [en. $4. what it had done, but so far Randolph might promise, that if the noblemen who had hitherto been favourable to the English alliance would assist in executing the law against the rebels and their maintainers, the Queen of England would identify her cause with theirs against any who on that ground should seek to oppose them.' 1 As usual when action became imperative, when it was absolutely necessary to do something or to lose the game, Cecil carried his point. The substance of these directions had been drawn up in a private conference on the 1 6th of March, by him and Bacon, and although the Queen was as far as ever from the only course which could give peace to Scotland or security to her- self, enough would be done to enable the King's friends to hold their ground. The soldiers who had been so hastily dismissed after the suppression of the rebellion were again collected, of course at an increased expense. Four thousand men were to assemble at Berwick by the second week in April, and Sussex was ordered up from York to take the command. He was directed to put himself in communication with Morton and Mar, and having obtained their consent in the King's name, he was to cross the Border, seize Westmoreland, Leonard Dacres, and the Nortons, or force them to leave Scot- land, and was to inflict condign punishment on the Border chiefs who had assisted them in their inroads into Northumberland. 2 It was not however without efforts almost desperate 1 Instructions to Randolph, March 18, abridged : MSS. Scotland - Instructions to Sussex, March, 1570- MSS. Border.