It is unfortunate for a truthful estimate of the _degree_ of discredit attachable to Cotton for this agency in promoting a scheme pregnant with dishonour to England, that little evidence of the share he took in it is now to be derived from any English source. His own extant correspondence yields very little, though it suffices to establish the fact of the agency, apart from that testimony of GONDOMAR, which will be cited presently. Under COTTON’S own hand we have the fact that in a conversation with himself the Ambassador of Spain on one occasion held out (by way, it seems, more immediately, of inducement to the English Government to shape certain pending negotiations on other matters into greater conformity with _Spanish_ counsels) [Sidenote: Cotton to Somerset; (undated) Harleian MS. 7002, fol. 378. (B. M.)] the threat that, if such a course were not taken, ‘turbulent spirits—of which Spain wanteth not—might add some hurt to the ill affairs of Ireland, or hindrance to the near affecting of the great work now in hand;’ a threat which COTTON transmits to SOMERSET without rebuke or comment. Early in 1615, COTTON had an interview with GONDOMAR in relation to the progress of the marriage negotiation in Spain. Of what passed at this interview we have no _detailed_ account other than that which was sent to the King of Spain by his Ambassador. The way in which COTTON’S name is introduced, and the singular misstatement that he had the custody of ‘all the King’s archives,’ seem to imply that GONDOMAR had still but little knowledge of the messenger now employed by JAMES and by SOMERSET to confer with him. Throughout, the reader will have to bear in mind that the narrative is GONDOMAR’S, and that all the material points of it rest upon his sole authority. [Sidenote: 1615. April 18.]