tters of
which I shall speak to you, and he will then take such steps as he
judges best for informing Sir William. There is now residing in London
a Florentine gentleman, Roberto Ridolfi, who pretends to be a merchant.
He by some means became acquainted with Lords Arundel and Lumley, to
whom he offered the loan of a sum of money. Now this Ridolfi is an
agent of the Pope, and receives express instructions from Rome on all
occasions how to act. When meeting the two lords I have mentioned on
the business of the loan, he managed to win them over to support the
plot he had arranged. They agreed readily, and undertook to gain over
the Duke of Norfolk. Many other nobles averse to the Protestant faith
have joined them; among the most influential of whom are the Earls of
Northumberland, Derby, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, and Leicester. They hope
to accomplish their object, as I have said, without bloodshed or
confusion. Sir William has, I doubt not, been greatly surprised at the
way in which they have absented themselves from the Queen's Council.
`To be forewarned is to be forearmed.' A man of Cecil's judgment and
discretion, when once he has a right clue to their conduct, will know
how to act; but let both him and the Queen beware of foes of every
description, and especially--I scarcely like to speak it aloud, Ernst--
of poison. There are those who are fully capable of using it, if they
think their ends can be accomplished by no other means. Not only does a
good understanding subsist between them and the Pope, but they have
secured the Duke of Alva. They have also opened a negotiation with the
Kings of France and Spain. They have traitorously suggested that the
former should issue an edict forbidding all commerce with England; and,
more than that they have urged the Pope to send his troops which have
lately come out of Italy to the coast of Normandy and Picardy, in order
to give the English Roman Catholics courage to proceed; so that, should
matters come to extremities, they would have the support of a Papal army
of mercenaries. That fact, my young friend, as much as any other
circumstance, has made me, as a patriotic Englishman, feel not only a
repugnance for their scheme, but a hatred and disdain of principles
which can so blind their eyes, and induce them thus to act. Should the
plot be successful, one of the first things which Alva would do would be
to make a descent on the English coast; thus, as he would hope,
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