The English Parliament had recently framed a statute, out of special consideration for the Queen of Scots, by which it was enacted that, not only the person _by_ whom, but also the person _for_ whom, a rebellion should be excited against the majesty of Elizabeth, might be visited with several penalties, and "pursued to death," and it only remained to induce Mary to avail herself of the benefits of that benign legislation.[#] The event long hoped for by her enemies ere long came to pass. The net of Secretary Walsingham’s cunning intrigue gradually involved the unsuspecting victim in its deadly meshes. In April, 1586, a young English Catholic gentleman, named Babington, whom a spirit of chivalry had deeply interested in the Scottish Queen’s behalf, and who was stung to desperation by the injustices which he and his co-religionists were obliged to suffer because they would not forswear the faith of their English forefathers, was drawn into a plot, devised by Morgan and Paget in France, for the overthrow of Elizabeth and the liberation of Mary. This plot is known in English history as the Babington plot, though it might, with far more truth, be called the Walsingham plot. Walsingham was aware of its existence for some months before the services of Babington were solicited. His agents, especially Pooley and Gilbert Gifford, combined the offices of staunch conspirators and spies at the same time, and kept their master fully informed of what was being done. The assassination of Elizabeth formed no part of the original design. It was only at a consultation, held at Paris, in April, in which Gifford took an active part, that this daring project was agreed upon, and that it was resolved to seek the aid of the unfortunate young Babington. In the meantime, Walsingham, anxious that Mary might be entangled as completely as possible in his net, and tempted to ratify the compromising scheme that he himself, through his worthy agent, had helped to concoct, arranged that she should be given favourable opportunities for communication with her outside friends; but he equally provided that the medium of communication should be persons in his own service. Thus, the letters she sent out, as well as those she received, all passed through the office of the Secretary of State, were deciphered there by another noted instrument of the Secretary’s, named Philipps, and forwarded to their destination with whatever addition or interpolation seemed best calculated to provoke a reply directly implicating the unsuspecting captive. [#] In justice it must be stated, that it was not under this statute, but under a later one requiring the complicity of the party in whose interest the treasonable measures should be taken, that the Queen of Scots was subsequently condemned.