Dudley again was willing to become the humble servant of Philip if Cecil could be got out of the way by Guzman’s aid. He hoped still, he told Guzman, to marry the Queen; “he had an understanding already with the Pope, and a person was in Rome to represent him.” When, however, Guzman asked for details of exactly what Lord Robert promised to do with regard to religion, the answers were vague, and the example of Bishop Quadra, moreover, was not lost on his successor. The ambassador knew that Philip was not ready to attack the English Protestants yet, or on the shifty word of Dudley, but he prepared the ground cleverly for future action. The first thing, he told the conspirators, was to bring the Queen into close friendship with the King of Spain, and with the Catholics through him, as otherwise she would not dare to dismiss her Protestant ministers. “All people think,” he wrote to the King, “that the only remedy for the religious trouble is to get these people turned out of power, as they are the mainstay of the heretics, Lord Robert having the Catholics all on his side; and I tell them that they must take these things [_i.e._, the need for fortifying Elizabeth by the friendship of Spain] into consideration when they are seeking a remedy, and that plenty of opportunities will offer themselves, if needed later, to raise war or stop trade.[153] The Catholics are much disturbed, and as they have no other idea than this they will not abandon it until they see some way of gaining their point. Certainly, from what I hear, they are very numerous if they dared to show, or had a leader.” But desirous as the Queen was to curry favour with the Catholic-Spanish party, and infatuated as she might be with Dudley, she could not dispense with Cecil’s services, and Dudley’s hopes again decreased, notwithstanding Philip’s sympathy expressed through Guzman, who was instructed to offer him all the aid he sought; but only on a distinct promise fully to restore the Catholic religion in England in the event of his marriage.[154] This Dudley could not do, though by innuendo he promised much, and thus Cecil remained unmolested. Elizabeth on this occasion was probably a party to Dudley’s action, for she carried matters almost as far with Guzman herself. She went out of her way several times to hint broadly at her desire to enter into negotiations for her marriage with Don Carlos, without the slightest intention, of course, of ever doing so, even if the health of the Prince had made such a match possible. She assured Guzman that she was really a Catholic at heart, “although she had concealed her real feelings in order to prevail with her subjects.”[155] Some weeks later she ordered a crucifix and ornaments to be placed upon the altar in her chapel, and Guzman told her that the preachers were slandering her for it, whereupon she said that she would order crosses to be placed in all the churches in the realm.[156] [Illustration: WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY