e of
things, and to plan the following wild and desperate scheme.

Having first repaired to France, where they expected to receive aid and
counsels from the Guises, the conspirators were to return at the head of
an army and make a landing in Wales. Here Arthur Pole, assuming at the
same time the title of duke of Clarence, was to proclaim the queen of
Scots, and the new sovereign was soon after to give her hand to his
brother Edmund. This absurd plot was detected before any steps were
taken towards its execution: the Poles were apprehended, and made a full
disclosure on their trial of all its circumstances; pleading however in
excuse, that they had no thought of putting their design in practice
till the death of the queen, an event which certain diviners in whom
they placed reliance had confidently predicted within the year.

In consideration of this confession, and probably of the insignificance
of the offenders, the royal pardon was extended to their lives, and the
illustrious name of Pole was thus preserved from extinction. It is
probable, however, that they were kept for some time prisoners in the
Tower; and thither was also sent the countess of Lenox, on discovery of
the secret correspondence which she carried on with the queen of Scots.

The confession of the Poles seems to have given occasion to the renewal,
by the parliament of 1562, of a law against "fond and fantastical
prophecies," promulgated with design to disturb the queen's government;
by which act also it was especially forbidden to make prognostications
on or by occasion of any coats of arms, crests, or badges; a clause
added, it is believed, for the particular protection of the favorite,
Dudley, whose _bear and ragged staff_ was the continual subject of open
derision or emblematical satire.

A legend in the "Mirror for Magistrates," relating the unhappy
catastrophe of George duke of Clarence, occasioned by a prophecy against
one whose name began with a G, appears to have been composed in aid of
the operation of this law. The author takes great pains to impress his
readers with the futility as well as wickedness of such predictions, and
concludes with the remark, that no one ought to imagine the foolish and
malicious inventors of modern prophecies inspired, though

..."learned _Merlin_ whom God gave the sprite
To know and utter princes' acts to come,
Like to the Jewish prophets did recite
In shade of beasts their doings all and some;