Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/324

 3io REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 54. mained either nothing could be done, or their extra- dition would be made a condition of the agreement. They had therefore crossed over to the Netherlands, in- tending to return when the Queen of Scots was released and the stir in England had recommenced. Great numbers of English refugees were already collected under Alva's protection. Priests, lawyers, knights, peers, noble ladies, representatives of all sorts and ranks united in an enmity to their Sovereign, and in a pas- sionate hope of speedily assisting in her overthrow. They were living on pensions from Philip, entertained much as Chatillon, Montgomery, the Vidame of Chartres, and other Huguenots had been entertained in England ; and there they had continued some of them from the time of Elizabeth's accession, scheming, conspiring, in- triguing, gliding backwards and forwards over the Channel in disguise, and circulating seditious pamphlets in the English counties. Among these persons was Doctor Story, a man who had been notorious for his cruelties during the Marian persecutions, and for the insolence with which he had defended them in Elizabeth's first Parliament. He had been imprisoned for refusing the Oath of Allegiance, but he had escaped abroad and had since been especially active in plotting treason. On this person Cecil had long had his eye. Spies pretending to be Catholics had been watching him and probing his secrets. Besides the ordinary plots for invading England, it seems that he had a scheme on foot in connection with one of the TIamiltons for a feat which would have eclipsed the