Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

INTRODUCTION
Ixv
of 1585 called 1 January by English time and style, 11 January
by French time and style.
This then is the rule for reading a date expressed like a
fraction. The upper figure means English time, the lower
continental time.
Notice that the double figure does not express any doubt
between two times. If there was a doubt, one might write,
? 1-11 January 1585. But the fractional form refers to one
and the same day, differently numbered in different styles.
When the whole passage refers to England only, or to the
Continent only, then if only one number is used, it will obviously
mean the local time in the place under discussion.
In the case of letters written to and from Chartley, it is
generally necessary to notice both styles. The English date
was used there for all domestic purposes, for instance in the
Journal of Bourgoing. But the letters from France, which
comprised so large a part of Mary’s correspondence, having been
written in New Style, were also answered by her in New Style.
Moreover Phelippes, in the notes that came with the secret
correspondence, arranged to use it in his covering note of 6/16
June, R.O., M.Q.S., xviii. 6; Boyd, viii. 440 ; and below, p. 10.
What his reason was we do not know. Perhaps, from having
deciphered some of her letters to Paris, he knew she sometimes
used that style; perhaps he craftily thought that its assumption
would help to create the impression that he was a catholic, and
so contribute in its way to her undoing.
SECTION IV
John Ballard, 1584-1586.
The snare which was to cost Mary her life having been
set, the next move would be to invite conspirators to make
use of its apparent advantages. It will not be hard to see
that the first steps in this treacherous proceeding would
have been taken in deep secrecy, and that little or no record
of them should survive. In the later stages of the plot,
when the die was cast, and the conspirators on both sides
e