Suddenly the blow fell. Mary Stuart’s prison was made closer, and Norfolk and the conservative lords were peremptorily summoned before the Queen at Windsor. The Duke, protesting his unalterable loyalty to Elizabeth, travelled in deadly fear as far as London, and on the day of his arrival at Howard House a messenger from the Earl of Northumberland came secretly to de Spes. Making a private sign, which had been agreed upon as a proof of genuineness, he said “that the Earl of Northumberland and his friends in the North had agreed to liberate the Queen of Scotland and establish the Catholic religion, returning to the amity and alliance with your Majesty which they so much desire. The Earl wished to know if your Majesty would approve of this, as he would undertake nothing that was not in your interest.” To this de Spes dared not say more than that he would write to the Duke of Alba about it. “The Duke of Norfolk,” he adds, “is here preparing all his friends.” So far from doing this, Norfolk was malingering in a panic, and two days later fled to Kenninghall, whimpering in a pitiable letter to Elizabeth that he never meant any harm. On his honour, he never dealt with the Queen of Scots further than he declared to the Queen and some of her Council. Such lying and prevarication was scorned by the irate Elizabeth. Ill or well, she wrote in a rage, Norfolk must come to her instantly, and, trembling with fear, the poor wretch went as slow as he dared to Windsor, there with lachrymose repentance to be ordered into arrest with Arundel, Lumley, Pembroke, and all the rest of his accomplices who were within Elizabeth’s reach.