rone when her councillors began to suspect the use
of sorcery and conjuration against her life. As a result they
instituted the most painstaking inquiries into all reported cases of the
sort, especially in and about London and the neighboring counties. Every
Catholic was suspected. Two cases that were taken up within the first
year came to nothing, but a third trial proved more serious. In November
of 1558 Sir Anthony Fortescue,[39] member of a well known Catholic
family, was arrested, together with several accomplices, upon the charge
of casting the horoscope of the queen's life. Fortescue was soon
released, but in 1561 he was again put in custody, this time with two
brothers-in-law, Edmund and Arthur Pole, nephews of the famous cardinal
of that name. The plot that came to light had many ramifications. It was
proposed to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, to Edmund Pole, and from
Flanders to proclaim her Queen of England. In the meantime Elizabeth was
to die a natural death--at least so the conspirators claimed--prophesied
for her by two conjurers, John Prestall and Edmund Cosyn, with the
assistance of a "wicked spryte." It was discovered that the plot
involved the French and Spanish ambassadors. Relations between Paris and
London became strained. The conspirators were tried and sentenced to
death. Fortescue himself, perhaps because he was a second cousin of the
queen and brother of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, seems to have
escaped the gallows.[40]

The Fortescue affair was, however, but one of many conspiracies on foot
during the time. Throughout the sixties and the seventies the queen's
councillors were on the lookout. Justices of the peace and other
prominent men in the counties were kept informed by the privy council of
reported conjurers, and they were instructed to send in what evidence
they could gather against them. It is remarkable that three-fourths of
the cases that came under investigation were from a territory within
thirty miles of London. Two-thirds of them were from Essex. Not all the
conjurers were charged with plotting against the queen, but that charge
was most common. It is safe to suppose that, in the cases where that
accusation was not preferred, it was nevertheless the alarm of the privy
council for the life of the queen that had prompted the investigation
and arrest.

Between 1578 and 1582, critical years in the affairs of the Scottish
queen, the anxiety of the London authorities was intense[41]-