Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/409

 1 57 1-] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. $95 Don Guerau, in a letter sent direct to Spain, pre- pared Philip for Bidolfi/s coming : DON GUEllAU TO PHILIP/ 'March 1 6. 'The Queen of Scots, the Duke of Norfolk, and the other Catholic leaders,, have arrived, after long delibera- tion, at a most important conclusion. The Queen of Scots will send a Commissioner to your Majesty, with instructions the copy of which I enclose. He will explain fully to his Holiness and to your Majesty the miserable state to which this country is reduced, the probability that the Catholics have yet greater cruelties to undergo, and the solitary prospect of escape which is open to them through the assistance of those who support the claim of the Queen of Scots to the succes- sion of these realms. The other competitors, the Earls of Hertford and Huntingdon, are heretics. Your Ma- jesty will be given to understand the unhappy state of that Princess, and the sufferings to which the good 2 are exposed who favour the cause. The Queen of England does but dally in affecting to treat for her restoration. More than once she has proposed to put her to death, and she forbears only the more effectually to ruin her Catholic subjects. She entertains them with the hope of an agreement, while the heretics persecute them at their pleasure. The friends of the Queen of Scots therefore have decided that she must 1 MS. Simancas. 2 The usual phrase in these despatches to express the Catholics-