Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/464

 45 o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56. to say to the Germans that you go there only to main- tain the rights of the Queen of Scots against her com- petitors. The Duke of Norfolk says he can himself keep the field for forty days : long before that time i& out we can give him the 6000 men that he asks for, and all will go well. 'Your Majesty understands. The Queen being dead naturally or otherwise dead or else a prisoner, there will be an opportunity which we should not allow to escape. The. first step must not be taken by us, both for our sake and for theirs, but we may tell the Duke that those conditions being first fulfilled, he shall have what he wants. The enterprise will be as honourable to your Majesty as it will then be easy to execute. So confident am I of this, that if I hear that either of these contingencies has taken place, I shall act at once without waiting for further instructions from your Majesty/ l Alva, it is clear, understood the business, and, if every one concerned in it had been as prudent as he, the result might have been something considerable. He dismissed Ridolfi with such cautions as he described to Philip, to pursue his journey to Rome, and he himself at his leisure made arrangements to move on the in- stant, if the opportunity for which he waited should present itself. Had Norfolk possessed sufficient spirit, the Queen might perhaps have been taken at the open- Alva to Philip, April 7, 1571 : JllSti. Simancas