Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

44 MARY STUART AND THE BABINGTON PLOT
haue been nothing proved. Difcover as little as you can
yor names & intentions to the ffrench Ambr nowe Lieger
at London : for althoughe hee bee, as I vnderftand, a
verie honeft gentleman, of good confcience and relligion,
yet feare I y* his Mr enterteineth with that Queen a
courfe farr contrarie to our defleignementes : which maie
move him to crofle vs, yf it fhould happen hee had anie
particuler knowledge thereof.1
xiv. All this while paft I haue fewed to change and
remove from this howfe, and for anfweare the Caftle of
Dudley only hath been named to ferve the turne : fo as
by apparance within the end of this Tomer I maie goe
thither. Wherfore advife, fo foone as I Ihalbee there,
what provifion maie bee had about that part for my efcape
from thence. If 2 I ftaie here, there is for that purpofe but
one of thefe three meanes following to be looked.a
The firft that at one certeine daie apointed in my walk¬
ing abroad on horfback on the moores betwixt this and
Stafford, where ordinarely you knowe verie fewe people
doe pafle, a fiftie or threefcore men well horfed and armed
come to take mee there, as they maie eafely, my keeper
having with him ordenarely but eighteen or twentie horfe-
men only with dagges.
The fecond meane is to come at midnight or foone after
to fett fyre in the barnes and ftables, which you knowe
are nere to the howfe, and whileft that my Gardian his
fervants lhall runne forth to the fire, your companie
(having everie one a marke whereby they may knowe one
a. looked. State Trials adds for. For look in the sense of look for see
Murray’s Oxford Dictionary under Look, I. 6. d.
of Campion’s death. Nevertheless, the advice was excellent. Gilbert
Gifford, the deacon, was the evil genius of the plot; and the priest Ballard,
though no traitor to his own side, was the unbalanced enthusiast, who
carried the conspirators into their fatal errors. Unfortunately it was
Mary’s own servant Morgan who set both to work on lines which led up
to the great calamity.
1 This passage was, of course, used in subsequent diplomacy in order
to make Henri m. withdraw from Mary’s defence.
2 The sixth Point begins here, and goes on, two and a half paragraphs,
to ‘ suddenly away.’