projects. The road to advancement upon which I had set him seemed to him
long and toilsome by contrast with the shorter cut that was offered by
his new master's dreams. He fell as the earlier secretary had fallen,
and more grievously, for he was the more ambitious of the two, and from
merely seconding Don John's projects, it was not long before he spurred
them on, not long before he was dreaming dreams of his own for Don John
to realize.

From Tunis, which had by now been recovered by the Turks, and any hopes
concerned with which King Philip had discouraged, the eyes of Don John
were set, at Escovedo's bidding, I believe, upon the crown of England.

He had just been invited by Philip to make ready to take in hand the
affairs of Flanders, sadly disorganized under the incompetent rule of
Alva. It occurred to him that if he were to issue victoriously from that
enterprise--and so far victory had waited upon his every venture--if
he were to succeed in restoring peace and Spanish order in rebellious
Flanders, he would then be able to move against England with the Spanish
troops under his command, overthrow Elizabeth, deliver Mary Stuart from
the captivity in which she languished, and by marriage with her set
the crown of England on his brow. To this great project he sought the
support of Rome, and Rome accorded it very readily being naturally
hostile to the heretic daughter of Anne Boleyn.

It was Escovedo himself who went as Don John's secret ambassador to the
Vatican in this affair Escovedo, who had been placed with Don John to
act as a curb on that young man's ambitions. Nor did he move with the
prudence he should have observed.

Knowledge of what was brewing reached us from the Papal Nuncio in
Madrid, who came to see me one day in the matter.

"I have a dispatch from Rome," he announced, "in which His Holiness
instructs me to enjoin upon the King that the expedition against England
be now executed, and that he consider bestowing its crown upon Don John
of Austria for the greater honour and glory of Holy Church."

I was thunderstruck. The expedition against England, I knew, was no new
project. Three years before a secret envoy from the Queen of Scots, an
Italian named Ridolfi, had come to propose to Philip that, in concert
with the Pope, he should reestablish the Catholic faith in England and
place Mary Stuart upon the throne. It was a scheme attractive to Philip,
since it agreed at once with his policy and his reli