Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

clxxiv MARY STUART AND THE BABINGTON PLOT
consummate art. Instead of inquiring whether Spain was
ready, and showing that the English catholics could not
rise till this was assured, he tells the Spaniard that troops
are not required, that the English are sure to rise, and in¬
flames him by every art to write to England in favour of the
assassination. The letters, he knew, would be intercepted,
and he, Gilbert, would secure a new triumph.1
He began, therefore, with a long recital of the names of
the English nobility and gentry, and of the soldiers and
sailors, who were pledged to rise. Then comes a descrip¬
tion of the Babington plot (p. 605), which is only delayed
until they have Mendoza’s approval.
Babington had in truth insisted that Spanish troops
were indispensable. Gilbert says, ‘ They will not ask for
troops to be sent.’ ‘ If I,’ wrote Mendoza, ‘ will give them
my word, that they shall have help from the Netherlands
in case they need it . . . they will at once put into execu¬
tion the plan tp kill the Queen . . . and they . . . beg
me most earnestly for God’s sake to send them an instant
answer.’
Flop ! went Mendoza into the trap, with even less dis¬
cernment than Savage, Babington, or Mary had shown.
‘ I received “ the gentleman,” wrote the befooled veteran,
‘in a way which the importance of his proposal deserved,
as it was so Christian, just, and advantageous to the Holy
Catholic Faith and your Majesty’s service.’
Alack ! alack ! for the political morality of the sixteenth
century, when strained by adverse circumstances !
‘ I wrote them two letters by different routes, one in Italian
and the other in Latin, encouraging them in the enterprise.
1 Spanish Calendar, pp. 603-4. The Spanish text is in A. Teulet, Rela¬
tions politiques, v. 371; the original is in Paris, Archives Nationals, 1564,
135 (olim 150), collated for me by R. P. de Joannis. It will be remembered
that what Babington had asked for was the declaration ' by authority,’
presumably by Allen or the Nuncio, that this assassination was lawful.