Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

52 MARY STUART AND THE BABINGTON PLOT
fore, that have overturned so many happy estates, and
defiled such and so many familyes heretofore of unspotted
fidehtye with so infamous and hatefull an accion, in de¬
priving us of life and desire of lyfe, and the common¬
wealth of the service of men most resolved in whatsoever
they apprehend.
[§ 2, f. 218. Ballard comes to Babington.]
About Maye last as I remember, ther came unto me
at London, at my lodginge in Hemes rentes,1 one Ballard,
a man whom I had knowen before his departure last into
Fraunce. He toulde me he was retorned from Fraunce
uppon this occasion. Being with Mendoza at Paris, he
was informed 2 that in regarde of the iniuries don by our
state unto the greatest Christian princes, by the nourish-
inge of sedition and divisions in their provinces, by with¬
holding violently the lawful possessions of some, by
invasion of the Indies and by piracy, robbing the treasure
and the wealthe of others, and sondry intollerable wronges
for so great and mighty princes to indure, it was resolved
by the Catholique league 3 to seeke redresse and satis¬
faction, which they had vowed to performe this sommer
without farther delay, havinge in readiness suche forces
and all warlike preparations as the like was never scene
in these partes of Christendome.
The Pope was chiefe disposer, the most Christian kinge
x According to the indictment {Fourth Report of Dep. Keeper, Ap. ii.
p. 276) the visit took place at the very end of May. I cannot identify
Heme’s Rents. The Alphabetical index of the Streets, Squares’, Lanes,
Alley’s, &>c. in Roques’ Survey of London, 1747, does not give the name,
though a long list of ' Rents ' shows that the term was then still in vogue
in London. Boyd (p. 615) mentions ‘ Heron’s Rents.’ Hohnshed, iv. 260,
speaks of ‘Hern’s Rents, Holborn.’ This place was the scene of most of
the meetings now to come, and its identification would be interesting. It
was presumably near St. Giles's Church, facing which the conspirators were
executed; the spot being chosen as representing .the scene of the crime.
Cf. also p. 71, ‘ My lodging at Mr. Cooks.’
2 Mendoza’s real message was very different. Introduction, p. xciv.
3 All that follows about an international Catholic League is popular
fiction (see Introduction, p. xvii.).