from
which they had escaped; the new rigors which they knew awaited them in
the course of their missions; the liberty which for the present they
enjoyed of declaiming against that princess; and the contagion of that
religious fury which every where surrounded them in France; all these
causes had obliterated with them every maxim of common sense, and every
principle of morals or humanity. Intoxicated with admiration of the
divine power and infallibility of the pope, they revered his bull by
which he excommunicated and deposed the queen; and some of them had gone
to that height of extravagance as to assert, that that performance
had been immediately dictated by the Holy Ghost. The assassination
of heretical sovereigns, and of that princess in particular, was
represented as the most meritorious of all enterprises; and they taught,
that whoever perished in such pious attempts, enjoyed, without dispute,
the glorious and never-fading crown of martyrdom. By such doctrines,
they instigated John Savage, a man of desperate courage, who had served
some years in the Low Countries under the prince of Parma, to attempt
the life of Elizabeth; and this assassin, having made a vow to persevere
in his design, was sent over to England, and recommended to the
confidence of the more zealous Catholics.

About the same time, John Ballard, a priest of that seminary, had
returned to Paris from his mission in England and Scotland; and as he
had observed a spirit of mutiny and rebellion to be very prevalent
among the Catholic devotees in these countries, he had founded on that
disposition the project of dethroning Elizabeth, and of restoring by
force of arms the exercise of the ancient religion.[*] The situation
of affairs abroad seemed favorable to this enterprise; the pope, the
Spaniard, the duke of Guise, concurring in interests, had formed a
resolution to make some attempt against England: and Mendoza, the
Spanish ambassador at Paris, strongly encouraged Ballard to hope for
succors from these princes. Charles Paget alone, a zealous Catholic and
a devoted partisan of the queen of Scots, being well acquainted with the
prudence, vigor, and general popularity of Elizabeth, always maintained
that, so long as that princess was allowed to live, it was in vain to
expect any success from an enterprise upon England. Ballard, persuaded
of this truth, saw more clearly the necessity of executing the design
formed at Rheims; he came over to England in the