eded to discover to him the design undertaken by
Savage;[*] and was well pleased to observe that, instead of being
shocked with the project, Babington only thought it not secure enough,
when intrusted to one single hand, and proposed to join five others with
Savage in this desperate enterprise.

* Camden, p. 515. State Trials, p. 114.

In prosecution of these views, Babington employed himself in increasing
the number of his associates; and he secretly drew into the conspiracy
many Catholic gentlemen, discontented with the present government.
Barnwell, of a noble family in Ireland, Charnoc, a gentleman of
Lancashire, and Abington, whose father had been cofferer to the
household readily undertook the assassination of the queen. Charles
Tilney, the heir of an ancient family, and Titchborne of Southampton,
when the design was proposed to them, expressed some scruples, which
were removed by the arguments of Babington and Ballard. Savage alone
refused, during some time, to share the glory of the enterprise with
any others;[*] he challenged the whole to himself; and it was with some
difficulty he was induced to depart from this preposterous ambition.

* State Trials, vol. i. p. 111.

The deliverance of the queen of Scots, at the very same instant when
Elizabeth should be assassinated, was requisite for effecting the
purpose of the conspirators; and Babington undertook, with a party of a
hundred horse, to attack her guards while she should be taking the air
on horseback. In this enterprise, he engaged Edward Windsor, brother to
the lord of that name, Thomas Salisbury, Robert Gage, John Travers, John
Jones, and Henry Donne; most of them men of family and interest. The
conspirators much wanted, but could not find, any nobleman of note whom
they might place at the head of the enterprise; but they trusted that
the great events, of the queen's death and Mary's deliverance, would
rouse all the zealous Catholics to arms; and that foreign forces, taking
advantage of the general confusion, would easily fix the queen of Scots
on the throne, and reestablish the ancient religion.

These desperate projects had not escaped the vigilance of Elizabeth's
council, particularly of Walsingham, secretary of state. That artful
minister had engaged Maud, a Catholic priest, whom he retained in pay,
to attend Ballard in his journey to France, and had thereby got a hint
of the designs entertained by the fugitives. Polly, another of his
sp