276} that
lay in his way; and protesting while he did it that he was the most
faithful servant of the Holy See. Individually a pious Catholic,
officially a military machine, Alva obeyed orders with mechanical
inflexibility, and, irresistible as destiny, advanced towards Rome.
The college of cardinals, who remembered the occupation of the city by
Bourbon's army, implored the pope to have pity on them. The pope had
been too precipitate in commencing operations without waiting for the
French. He was forced to submit his pride, and sue for an armistice,
to which Alva, in the moderation of conscious strength, consented.

The French, on the other hand, were preparing to strike a blow in a
quarter where as yet they were unlooked for.

The pastoral anxieties of the English legate had extended to Calais,
where the Protestants were in considerable numbers. A commission was
sent thither which proceeded with the usual severities,[585] and the
sufferers, or those among the garrisons in Calais and Guisnes whose
sympathy with the Reformation was stronger than their patriotism,
placed themselves in correspondence with Sir Henry Dudley, at Paris.
The pay of the troops was long in arrear, and they were all mutinous
and discontented. Neither Guisnes, Hammes, nor Calais itself were
provisioned for more than three or four weeks; and the refugees,
caring only to revenge themselves on Mary, were laying a train in
connection with several of the "chiefest officers" in the three
fortresses, to betray them into the hands of France. The existence of
a conspiracy became known by accident to some one, who placed Wotton
on his guard; and Wotton, by vigilance and by the help of spies,
ascertained gradually the nature of the scheme. In the beginning of
October he discovered that Senarpont, the governor of Boulogne, was
silently increasing the garrison of the Boullonnois. Then he heard of
troops collecting at Rouen, of large preparations of military stores,
of sappers' and miners' tools, and "great files, which would cut in
two without noise the largest [harbour] chains."[586] Next, it seemed
that the leader of the adventurous party, which fourteen years before
"took the town of Marano by practise and subtlety," was in Calais in
disguise. Finally, he learnt that Henry himself was going to Rouen, to
conduct the enterprise in person.

[Footnote 585: "There is a faction or dissension
within Calais for religion's sak