oath of allegiance, had left the country, and had
taken to treason. Cecil wanted evidence, and this man he knew could give
it. A pretended informer brought Story word that there was an English
vessel in the Scheldt which he would find worth examining. Story was
tempted on board. The hatches were closed over him. He was delivered two
days after at the Tower, when his secrets were squeezed out of him by
the rack and he was then hanged.

Something was learnt, but less still than Cecil needed to take measures
to protect the Queen. And now once more, and in a new character, we are
to meet John Hawkins. Three years had passed since the catastrophe at
San Juan de Ulloa. He had learnt to his sorrow that his poor companions
had fallen into the hands of the Holy Office at last; had been burnt,
lashed, starved in dungeons or worked in chains in the Seville yards;
and his heart, not a very tender one, bled at the thoughts of them. The
finest feature in the seamen of those days was their devotion to one
another. Hawkins determined that, one way or other, these old comrades
of his should be rescued. Entreaties were useless; force was impossible.
There might still be a chance with cunning. He would risk anything, even
the loss of his soul, to save them.

De Silva had left England. The Spanish ambassador was now Don Guerau or
Gerald de Espes, and to him had fallen the task of watching and
directing the conspiracy. Philip was to give the signal, the Duke of
Norfolk and other Catholic peers were to rise and proclaim the Queen of
Scots. Success would depend on the extent of the disaffection in England
itself; and the ambassador's business was to welcome and encourage all
symptoms of discontent. Hawkins knew generally what was going on, and he
saw in it an opportunity of approaching Philip on his weak side. Having
been so much in the Canaries, he probably spoke Spanish fluently. He
called on Don Guerau, and with audacious coolness represented that he
and many of his friends were dissatisfied with the Queen's service. He
said he had found her faithless and ungrateful, and he and they would
gladly transfer their allegiance to the King of Spain, if the King of
Spain would receive them. For himself, he would undertake to bring over
the whole privateer fleet of the West, and in return he asked for
nothing but the release of a few poor English seamen who were in prison
at Seville.

Don Guerau was full of the belief that the whole nation was r