Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/551

 1571 THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. $37 Cawdor, who was taken, was broken on the wheel. He confessed, and a comrade confessed also, that their orders had been to kill Morton and Ruthven also. On the spot, that there should be no trouble with Elizabeth, the Earl of Mar was elected as Lennox's successor. The fire of hate was fanned into fury, and Maitland' s stroke of brilliant strategy served only to draw a sharper line of separation between the Castilians and the rest of their countrymen. Had Alva come, the north and east were still held by Huntly, and Aberdeen would have been open to re- ceive him ; but on that same week of September, when Lennox was dying at Stirling, and Hawkins was writing from Plymouth of his officer's success at Madrid, a happy accident explained to Cecil the missing ciphers, and extinguished the remaining chances of the Ridolfi conspiracy. 1 1 For the attempt at Stirling see Advertisements from Scotland, September 6 : MSS. Scotland. An- other account : Ibid. Maitland and Grange to Sir William Drury, Sep- tember 6 : Ibid. Drury to Cecil, September 10 and September 13 : Ibid. Confession of Cawdor and Bell : Ibid. Two letters, ciphers deciphered, from Maitland to Mary Stuart, September : MSS. QUKEN or SCOTS. EKD OF VOL. IX.