Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

48 MARY STUART AND THE BABINGTON PLOT
packet1 wherof I wrote to yow ten dayes before the day
appointed for the dispatching therof and shold haue bene
sent to yow on Monday last were [it] not that those which
came with yowrs the same day cawsed it thus so long to
be delayed.2 Her Maiestie prayeth yow now to send it
away by yowr boy to the French Ambassador so soone as
yow may goodly.
And if yow think that yow can find Babington at London,
by the same meanes to mak her Maiesties two letters,3
which yow have alredy, be surely delyvered to him.
Doubting by yowr fores ay d (wch to tell yow fryely I
founde difficil in discipring and therfor some pointes lesse
intelligible then I wished) that myself haue erred in
dowbling 4 of the addition which I sent yow, throw some
haste I had then at dispatcheing therof. I pray yow to
forbeare the using of the sayd addition untill that agaynst
my next I may put the wholl at more leasure in better
ordor as I hope to doo both for yowr gretar ease and
myne.
If I have not mistaken yowr meaning towcheing the
mark that is for yow it is yowr desyre that in yowr absence
her Maiesties letters or mine requyring spedy disciphering
that on the back therof for yowr brother his better direc¬
tion, as yow name it, yowr sayd marke may be written
twyse or thryse, which (untill yow let me know the con¬
trary) shal be so.
God almighty preserue yow. Fryday the seuenth of
August.6—Curll.
Addressed, ff. See also p. 47, n. 2.
1 Post iii, with letters to Mendoza and others on the general situation
caused by Babington’s plans.
2 The sense is, ‘ I wrote (No. 13 above) giving you ten days’ notice for
this post, i.e. appointing Wednesday last. It would have been ready
last Monday, but for Babington’s letter.’
3 Two letters to Babington, i.e. Nau’s about Poley, No. 12, and Mary’s
answer, No. 14.
4 Phehppes erroneously deciphered ‘ doubling ’ as ‘ setting down.’
6 There is in the date another mistake in the style. Friday was 29 July
Old Style, and 8, not 7, August New Style. Friday is likely to be right,
for Poulet sent it up to London on Saturday 30 July Old Style (Morris,
p. 247).