this
prisoner Walpole, as a diligent servant of his Church, undertook to make
himself acquainted; and finding him a resolute fellow, and of capacity
and education above his rank, he spared no pains to convert him to
popery. This step gained, he diligently plied him with his jesuitical
arguments, and so thoroughly persuaded him of the duty and merit of
promoting by any kind of means the overthrow of heresy, that Squire at
length consented to bind himself by a solemn vow to make an attempt
against the life of Elizabeth in the mode which should be pointed out to
him:--an enterprise, as he was assured, which would be attended with
little personal danger, and, in case of the worst, would assuredly be
recompensed by an immediate admission into the joys of heaven.

Finally the worthy father presented to his disciple a packet of some
poisonous preparation, which he enjoined him to take an opportunity of
spreading on the pommel of the queen's saddle. The queen in mounting
would transfer the ointment to her hand; with her hand she was likely to
touch her mouth or nostrils; and such, as he averred, was the virulence
of the poison that certain death must follow.

Squire returned to England, enlisted for the Cadiz expedition, and on
the eve of its sailing took the preparation and disposed of it as
directed. Desirous of adding to his merits, he found means during the
voyage to anoint in like manner the arms of the earl of Essex's chair.
The failure of the application in both instances greatly surprised him.
To the Jesuit it appeared so unaccountable, that he was persuaded Squire
had deceived him; and actuated at once by the desire of punishing his
defection, and the fear of his betraying such secrets of the party as
had been confided to him, he consummated his villany by artfully
conveying to the English government an intimation of the plot. Squire
was apprehended, and at first denied all: "but by good counsel, and the
truth working withal," according to Speed's expression, was brought to
confess what could not otherwise have been proved against him, and
suffered penitently for his offence. Our chronicler admires the
providence which interfered for the protection of her majesty in this
great peril, and compares it to the miraculous preservation of St. Paul
from the bite of the viper.

The Jesuits are supposed to have employed more efficacious instruments
for the destruction of Ferdinando earl of Derby, who died in April 1594.
Thi