's advice as to choosing the season when the crops in England
had just been got in, as the harvest of so fertile a country would easily
support an invading force; but he advised nevertheless that the army
should be thoroughly victualled at starting. Finding that Alexander did
not quite approve of the Irish part of the plan, he would reconsider the
point, and think more of the Isle of Wight; but perhaps still some other
place might be discovered, a descent upon which might inspire that enemy
with still greater terror and confusion. It would be difficult for him,
he said, to grant the 6000 men asked for by the Scotch malcontents,
without seriously weakening his armada; but there must be no positive
refusal, for a concerted action with the Scotch lords and their adherents
was indispensable. The secret, said the King, had been profoundly kept,
and neither in Spain nor in Rome had anything been allowed to transpire.
Alexander was warned therefore to do his best to maintain the mystery,
for the enemy was trying very hard to penetrate their actions and their
thoughts.

And certainly Alexander did his best. He replied to his master, by
transmitting copies of the letters he had been writing with his own hand
to the Queen, and of the pacific messages he had sent her through
Champagny and De Loo. She is just now somewhat confused, said he, and
those of her counsellors who desire peace, are more eager, than ever for
negotiation. She is very much afflicted with the loss of Deventer, and is
quarrelling with the French ambassador about the new conspiracy for her
assassination. The opportunity is a good one, and if she writes an answer
to my letter, said Alexander, we can keep the negotiation, alive, while,
if she does not, 'twill be a proof that she has contracted leagues with
other parties. But, in any event, the Duke fervently implored Philip not
to pause in his preparations for the great enterprise which he had
conceived in his royal breast. So urgent for the invasion was the
peace-loving general.

He alluded also to the supposition that the quarrel between her Majesty
and the French envoy was a mere fetch, and only one of the results of
Bellievre's mission. Whether that diplomatist had been sent to censure,
or in reality to approve, in the name of his master, of the Scottish
Queen's execution, Alexander would leave to be discussed by Don
Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in Paris; but he was of
opinion that the anger