aired of ever recovering her authority, or even her liberty, by
pacific measures, she willingly gave her concurrence. The great number
of discontented Catholics were the chief source of their hopes on the
side of England and they also observed that the kingdom was at that
time full of indigent gentry, chiefly younger brothers, who, having at
present, by the late decay of the church, and the yet languishing state
of commerce, no prospect of a livelihood suitable to their birth, were
ready to throw themselves into any desperate enterprise.[*] But in
order to inspire life and courage into all these malecontents, it was
requisite that some great nobleman should put himself at their head; and
no one appeared to Rodolphi, and to the bishop of Ross, who entered into
all these intrigues, so proper, both on account of his power and his
popularity, as the duke of Norfolk.

This nobleman, when released from confinement in the Tower, had given
his promise, that he would drop all intercourse with the queen of
Scots;[**] but finding that he had lost, and, as he feared, beyond
recovery, the confidence and favor of Elizabeth, and being still in some
degree restrained from his liberty, he was tempted, by impatience and
despair, to violate his word, and to open anew his correspondence with
the captive princess.[***] A promise of marriage was renewed between
them; the duke engaged to enter into all her interests; and as his
remorses gradually diminished in the course of these transactions,
he was pushed to give his consent to enterprises still more criminal.
Rodolphi's plan was, that the duke of Alva should, on some other
pretence, assemble a great quantity of shipping in the Low Countries;
should transport a body of six thousand foot and four thousand horse
into England; should land them at Harwich, where the duke of Norfolk
was to join them with all his friends; should thence march directly
to London, and oblige the queen to submit to whatever terms the
conspirators should please to impose upon her.[****] Norfolk expressed
his assent to this plan; and three letters, in consequence of it, were
written in his name by Rodolphi; one to Alva, another to the pope, and
a third to the king of Spain; but the duke, apprehensive of the danger,
refused to sign them.[v]

* Lesley, p. 123.

** Haynes, p. 571.

*** State Trials, vol. i. p. 102.

**** Lesley, p. 155., State Trials, vol. i. p. 86, 87.

v Lesley, p. 159