Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

§ II. CONFESSIONS OF BABINGTON
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advise of the surprice of the Queene person, and what
counseillers in such a case shoulde be taken aw aye.
(9) I remember not that ever Ballard named any noble
man vnto me, neither that he saide there were fowre to
assist in this entreprise.
(10) The devise of association proposed by the Queene
was never put in vre by me, but reiected as a thinge which
I helde daungerous and not necessary in this case.
No. 20
FOURTH EXAMINATION OF
ANTHONY BABINGTON
[20 and 21 August 1586.]
Yelverton, xxxi. f. 228. These are points which Babington had omitted in his
account of Queen Mary’s letter. He is now enticed into re-casting his recol¬
lections.
20 August 1586
Confessed by some of the confederats 1 conteined in the
Scottish Quene’s Lettres omitted by Babington.
(1) That she advised that it were necessarie an associa¬
tion shoulde be made betwene the Catholiques in respecte
of the malice of the puritaines. [= Mary’s letter, § vi. 6.]
(2) That being don it shoulde be ‘ time for the vj gentle¬
men to worke taking order for the accomplishment ’ of the
daye for her dehuery. [= § vii.]
(3) To deale ‘carefully and vigilantly’ to provide all
things ‘ necessary for effectuating the entreprise ’ in suche
1 It is clear that this statement is fraudulent. These points are literal
quotations from the letter, and so must have been extracted from it.
Otherwise some prisoner must have quoted the whole letter by heart:
whereas, in fact, when the evidence of the other prisoners besides Babington
about the letter was gathered, the fullest version to be found was that of
Ballard, which is short (see p. 138, below). That of Dunne and that of
Poley are more superficial still. The reason for the imposition is clear.
The government did not want Babington to guess that they had an in¬
tercepted copy. With Curll and Nau a difierent deception was used to
obtain the same object. Introduction, p. clxxxix.