Philip was not ready yet for heroic measures in Great Britain, for he was busy planning the deadly blow he hoped to deal upon his disaffected Flemings. But he sent back by Yaxley cordial letters to Mary and Darnley, and told them to consult either Guzman or the Spanish ambassador in Paris when they were in doubt how to proceed. What advice was to be given to them in such case is seen in the King’s instructions to Guzman. “They should confine themselves for the present to punishing the rebels and pacifying the kingdom. When they have done this, and affairs have settled down, they could look further ahead than at present.” Philip was equally cautious in other directions. He did not want to tie himself openly or formally to Mary until he was quite sure that she would be a fit and obedient instrument for him to obtain command of England. She must, with her husband, for this purpose be able to command the united support of the English Catholic party, and Philip must be quite sure that her French relatives were not to influence her in any way. So he declined to negotiate a formal treaty or to write to Elizabeth about Lady Lennox, and even confined his present assistance to a sum of money, no less than 20,000 crowns, which was to be secretly handed to Yaxley by a Spanish banker, who himself did not know its destination, outside Antwerp. With this answer Yaxley travelled post-haste to Flanders, and duly took ship in Antwerp bound for the port of Leith with this large sum of money on his person. This was about the 20th November, 1565. The season was a terribly tempestuous one, and at some time in December, from the wreck of a Flemish ship, there was cast up by the sea upon the coast of Northumberland the drowned body of Yaxley with his treasure upon him. Guzman was alarmed when he heard of it, more for the letters and papers from Philip that the man bore than for the money, as they would divulge the whole plot; but if the letters were found, which it is probable they were, they were not delivered to Elizabeth. The Earl of Northumberland was a Catholic noble and secretly an adherent of Mary’s, as will be seen later; but, although his attachment to her might prompt him to keep or destroy letters compromising her, it was not proof against his claiming the money upon the dead man, which he seized in virtue of his territorial rights; although he had angry disputes and lawsuits with the Lord Admiral on the subject, who also claimed the salvage. Mary herself sent Melville to ask Northumberland for the delivery of the money intended for her. “But all my entreaties were ineffectual; he altogether refused to give any part thereof to the Queen (of Scots), albeit he was himself a Catholic and professed secretly to be her friend.”[168]