Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

INTRODUCTION
Ivii
to be, and really was, absolutely impossible to pass out a
letter by any of the means which had hitherto proved
successful. On the other hand, Gifford’s method of com¬
munication was to be winked at, and his modus operandi
will be fully explained later. His plan was put to the proof
on the long winter’s evening of 16 January, and that night
Mary had the intense delight of receiving the letter from
Morgan which commended Gilbert. With it there was a
note from Gifford himself offering to open up a regular
course of communication with her friends abroad.
The pleasure which such a missive would have brought
to Mary was extraordinarily keen. She had always re¬
joiced in receiving letters from home or from those to
whom she was attached, or about those in whom she was
interested. This was noted by ambassadors and others
from her youth upwards. But of late Poulet’s inflexible
severity and ceaseless vigilance had cut off all private
communication with those abroad, and all she could hear
came in the open letters sent her by the French ambassador.
These Poulet read before they were delivered, or did not
deliver them at all when they seemed to him inconvenient.1
On the other hand, he was not sorry to tell her reports
unfavourable to her own friends, reports which, as he says,
were as grateful to her ‘ as salt to her eyes.’ For almost
a year she had been thus deprived of intelligence about
current events drawn from friendly sources, and this long
fast had of course greatly enhanced the fascination which
news from home would always have had on a heart so
generous and so loyal. Now she suspected no harm. The
only fear which crossed her mind was lest the brave man
who (as she imagined) had risked so much to bring her
news should fall a victim to his daring, as so many others
had already done.
1 He sent one back, for instance, 7 July 1586, because to him it seemed
to reflect on the English in general. Morris, p. 216.