Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/468

 4 $4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56. Bull of excommunication was introduced, an old letter from Mary Stuart to Don Gruerau, another to Mary Stuart herself from an Italian in the Netherlands, and two from some one else to the French ambassador. The malcontent tone which characterized the Queen of Scots' secret correspondence was carefully preserved ; one or more of the letters were written in the cipher which Charles Baily had brought over, and the Bishop detained the key, intending to produce it with affected reluctance when it was asked for. Norfolk's and Lumley's letters were then conveyed to their address, and the Bishop, in the belief that he had done the work effectually, ven- tured to write himself to Burghley to say that a packet of letters had been brought over for him by one of his servants, that the servant had been arrested, and the letters detained. He trusted that Burghley would assist in recovering them for him. He did not know what the letters might contain, ' but if they came to his hands, no one of them should be used except as Burghley should think good/ 1 It' was a dexterous performance perhaps too dex- terous especially the last stroke of it. Cecil was better informed of what was passing underground than the Bishop supposed. The capture of Story was but one instance of the adroitness of his agents on the Continent. His spies, in the disguise of refugees, were to be met with at the Earl of Westmoreland's dinner-table, and in the closet of Lad^ Northumberland. Men who had 1 The Bishop of Ross to Lord Burghley, April 12: MSS. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.