that armed aid should be sent to the English Catholics suggested for the first time a viler method by which Elizabeth, the main obstacle to the Anglo-Spanish alliance, might be removed. The above letter is different from any that had preceded it, and was written privately, not to the King, as usual, but to his Secretary, Zayas. A “great service might be done to God whenever his Majesty wished.” It was no longer dependent, apparently, upon the ability of Philip to send large armed forces, though they might be needed later to hold the conquest. We will see from other sources what this new feature in the plan was. Two days after de Spes wrote the above letter, on the 8th February, 1571, Mary, who had learnt that the ambassador could do nothing, as he says, but refer the conspirators to the Duke of Alba, wrote as follows to the Bishop of Ross.[195] After saying that she would, as soon as she was released, go to Spain and throw herself entirely upon the protection of Philip, she proceeds: “I would advise to send some faithful man towards the King of Spain whom he might trust, to make him understand the state of my realm, and also of the friends I have here, their deliberations and the means they may have to set themselves to the fields and saist [_i.e._, obtain possession] them of me, if the said King of Spain will embrace and sustain my cause and theirs. I think Ridolfi may best acquit himself of this charge securely ... under colour of his own traffic.” She continues by saying that Philip’s fears of Norfolk’s orthodoxy must be banished. “I see no other means but to assure them of the Duke, for that is the knot of the matter. My whole hope is in the Catholics of this realm.” When the Bishop of Ross transmitted this proposal to Norfolk the latter at once acquiesced in the despatch of Ridolfi to Flanders, Spain, and Rome,[196] for the purpose of demanding aid to seize and depose Elizabeth; and on the 10th March de Spes wrote to the King, “The Queen of Scotland, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Catholic leaders have wisely resolved to send a gentleman to your Majesty, who will see the Duke of Alba first, but without the knowledge of the French. I have, after much difficulty, obtained a copy of his instructions, and send them herewith.”