The “new imaginations,” whatever they were, hardly suited Philip. He had through life a distinct repugnance to associating himself with the French in any of his plans with regard to England. Norfolk and his friends, doubtless in good faith, desired by means of Mary Stuart to change the government and religion of England, with or without the deposition of Elizabeth, and in order to do so they were glad to obtain support from any quarter they could. They had primarily no desire to hand England, bound hard and fast, to Spain, which was alone what Philip wanted. It is certain that Mary herself was willing to do so, because she knew that no effective armed aid could come to her from France, divided as that country was religiously and with her enemy Catharine dominant. Whilst Norfolk and his friends, therefore, were bidding for support on all sides and obtaining it, Mary was endeavouring with her might to keep the Spaniards, upon whom alone she depended, from slipping away from her. By the Bishop of Ross she begged de Spes to obtain Philip’s consent to her marriage with Norfolk, and the ambassador, in relating this to the King, wrote: “The business is so far forward that it will be difficult now to prevent it, and if it is to be done I think it had better be with your Majesty’s consent, which cannot fail to be of great advantage to them, and will bind them more closely to your Majesty’s service. The Queen of Scots says that if she were at liberty, or could get such help as would enable her to bring her country into submission, she would deliver herself and her son entirely into your Majesty’s hands; but that now she is obliged to sail with the wind, though she will never depart from your Majesty’s wishes.” Philip, indeed, was growing doubtful of the way the affair was progressing, and of de Spes’s management of it. “If the marriage of the Duke of Norfolk and the Queen of Scots,” he wrote, “is effected in the way, and with the objects you are informed, there is no doubt that it would be of great importance for the restoration of our true Faith in England, and would console the good Catholics now so oppressed. I desire these objects warmly, as you know; but they [the conspirators] must be very careful how they undertake the business, for if they make a mistake they will all be ruined. You did well in referring them to the Duke of Alba. You will limit yourself to this, in accordance with your orders, which you will not exceed.” Philip distrusted Norfolk, who up to that time had been a Protestant, and the Duke’s approaches to the French completed the King’s coolness towards him. But before this letter of Philip’s reached London the miserable Norfolk had collapsed. Leicester, who had been a party to the plan, again took fright when he began to understand the object behind it, and this time made a clean breast of it to the Queen herself.