was
carried on with the utmost secresy: but the watchful eye of divine
providence was fixed on the country, and the designs of its enemies, as
will be shown in this narrative, were mercifully frustrated. The bulls
above alluded to were to be kept secret as long as the queen survived.
They were addressed to the clergy, the nobility, and the commons, who
were exhorted not to receive any sovereign whose accession would not be
agreeable to the pope. The reasons assigned by his holiness for
recommending such a course, were the honour of God, the restoration of
the true religion, and the salvation of immortal souls. The Cardinal
D'Ossat, to whom they were at first entrusted, wrote to King James on
the subject, expressing a hope that he would openly profess the religion
of his mother. It will be seen, in a subsequent chapter, that these
bulls were committed to Garnet, who confessed that they had been in his
possession, and by whom they were destroyed when it was found to be
impossible to prevent James from succeeding to the English throne.

Never, perhaps, in the history of the world was a sovereign delivered
from more conspiracies than Queen Elizabeth. The efforts of her enemies
were unceasingly directed to one object, and that object was the queen's
death. Not only were private individuals instigated to attempt her
destruction, but the most extensive confederacies were entered into by
almost all the papal sovereigns of Europe.

A remarkable circumstance is related of the hopes and intentions of the
Spaniards, in the event of success in the _Armada_. A Spanish officer,
who was taken prisoner, was examined before the privy council. He
confessed that their object in coming was to subjugate the nation to the
yoke of Spain, and the church to that of the pope. He was asked by some
of the lords what they intended to do with the _Catholics_, as some must
necessarily have fallen: to which question he promptly replied, that
they meant to send them directly to _heaven_, even as they should have
sent the _heretics_ to _hell_. This statement rests on the authority of
the chaplain to the army. It was revealed to him in order that he might
publish it the next day, in his sermon, to the troops. He states, that
by commandment of the council he did publish it to the army. In those
days, there were no _newspapers_: nor was it then so easy to communicate
intelligence by _placards_ or _bills_. We find, therefore, that the
pulpit was often made