It was indeed time that so dangerous a guest should be promptly asked to depart; for this was the most critical juncture of Elizabeth’s reign and her Crown trembled in the balance. All the lords were not so pusillanimous as Norfolk. Both Dacre and Northumberland had formally notified to de Spes that they were ready to take up arms in Philip’s service. For many months the imprudent ambassador had been going beyond his instructions and encouraging these nobles to expect effective aid from Philip. If only a small number of arquebusiers were sent to them from Flanders, said Northumberland and Westmorland, they would undertake to release Mary, subdue the North of England, restore Catholic worship, and make friends with Spain. “I feel sure,” wrote de Spes, “that they will attempt the task; and it will be better effected by them than by the Duke of Norfolk, as they are better fitted for it, and the Queen of Scots will have greater freedom in the choice of a husband.” The questionable attitude of Westmorland and Northumberland caused Elizabeth to summon them to her presence. They disobeyed and, raising their standard, marched into Durham in force on the 14th November. Destroying the communion table in the cathedral, they caused Mass to be solemnly celebrated; and then pushing rapidly onward towards Ripon, Wetherby and Tadcaster, they finally assembled on Clifford Moor. The Earl of Sussex, the Queen’s Lieutenant in York, was for a time reduced to act on the defensive; and now, if Alba had been prompt and Philip ready, it is possible that the die might have been cast a winning number; and Mary Stuart, rescued from Tutbury, whither she had been rapidly carried, might have been made Queen of a Catholic Britain, under Spanish protection. When news came to de Spes of the southward march of the lords and their renewed prayers for aid from Flanders, he wrote to the King: “I have on several occasions written to your Majesty of the goodwill of these nobles, and I have given a letter in cipher to the gentleman they are sending to the Duke of Alba to ask for aid. They beg for prompt reply, as communications will soon be stopped.... It is certain that there has never been so good an opportunity either of punishing those who have so grievously opposed your Majesty’s interests, or of restoring the Catholic religion, in which consists the maintenance of our old alliance and friendship with this country.” To Alba de Spes wrote in jubilant strain on the 1st December. “The rebels,” he said, “were twelve thousand strong and were marching to release Mary and give battle to the Queen’s forces;” but he ominously adds that none of their confederates have yet risen. Ciappino Vitelli was still lingering at Colebrook, near Windsor, on the pretext of gout, though messages were being sent to him from the Queen that she considered his continued stay in England highly suspicious, as indeed it was, considering that he told de Spes, who doubtless conveyed