Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

§ III. LETTERS OF GILBERT GIFFORD 107
perfurm that they promised, we will doe at the leaste oure
partes, by which wordes I perceued that [sic ? he] thoughte
me priuie to the course—[which indeed I, cancelled].1
I asked him what was to be done on our partes; he
replied, that I must needes obtain of O her hande and
seale to allow of all that shoulde be practised for her
behalfe ; Withoute the which, saied he, we laboure in
vaine, and these men will not heare us.
I answered that it was a matter of greate importance,
and that we shoulde expecte Morgan and Paget to do it;
he saied the matter woulde groe longe, and that he was
in great daunger.
Well, saied I, in my opinion this was never obtained
hitherto by anie man, and the grauntinge thereof will be
harde. But what persuasions and what probabiUtie of
successe can you leaie 2 before , wherby he [sic] maie be
moved to graunte it. Saied he, I will vndetake within
fortie daies to procure his [altered from her] libertie.3
Well, saied I, let vs thinke of it, and to-morrow I will
answer you. So he parted oute of towne, and lefte his
man with me for answer, which he is maruelouse erneste in.
This Balart is the onlie man used in this practise, what¬
ever it be, which I cannot thereughlie discouer the first
daie 4 ; but in time it will be easie, for he desirethe my
companie and helpe therein. What youre Ho: thinketh
good I shall answer him; I desire to be enformed, and
1 ‘ He thoughte me priuie, which indeed I—’ One can hardly help
picturing Gilbert on the point of writing ‘ was,’ when he checked himself,
and cancelled the too-confidential phrase. But even if he had put down
that word, he would not have meant that he was privy to every detail,
and much less that he was privy all along, or before starting for France,
when as yet no details at all had been settled.
2 ‘ Leaie,’ i.e. lay, Morris reads ‘ leave.’
3 Walsingham would at any time have understood these words as
revealing a plot against Elizabeth’s life. But now that he had read
Babington’s letter, he knew their significance by objective evidence.
4 ‘ Which I cannot thereughlie discouer the first dale.’ Gilbert had not
yet heard of Babington’s letter. He had been away from town when it
was written, and Phelippes, having taken it down to Chartley, was not at
hand to tell the provocateur about it.