Before this happened, Philip’s Council in Madrid had exhaustively discussed Alba’s recommendation that the murder of Elizabeth should precede the sending of Spanish forces to England. They not only approved fully of it, but laid down that the act should be committed, not in London, but whilst the Queen was on a progress. Much sanctimonious talk there was in the Council about the sacredness of the cause excusing the means, and even the Pope’s Nuncio smiled upon the nefarious plan and called it righteous. As for Philip himself, he was perfectly willing, and said that the whole thing now turned upon the ability to get the money together for the purpose, “and it would be a great pity to miss so important a matter or so small an amount, as later it would cost so much more.”[201] It is probably true, as was urged for them, that neither Mary nor Norfolk consented in so many words to this openly avowed condition of the Spaniards to make the prior murder of Elizabeth a condition of armed aid being sent from Flanders. The proposal was certainly not contained in the instructions carried by Ridolfi from Norfolk, though it is, in my opinion, indicated in the letter from de Spes to Zayas of 25th March quoted on an earlier page. It is first put clearly in black and white by Alba himself, and warmly adopted by Philip and his Council. But though Mary and Norfolk were not therefore necessarily parties to the proposed crime, there can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person what would have befallen Elizabeth if success had attended the attempt, and Norfolk had carried out the pledge he gave to Alba to seize the Tower of London and secure the person of the Queen. We have here, however, not to deal with the culpability of the English actors so much as with that of the Catholic King, so full of saintly professions and so devoutly pious himself, who in his helplessness and desperation was willing at last, in order to extricate himself from a political impasse, to consent to treason and murder as a means to righteousness. In the letter Philip wrote to de Spes (4th August, 1571)—in ignorance, of course, of the collapse of the plot—he conveys his intention to patronise the murder of Elizabeth in the following characteristic words: “After carrying the whole question before Almighty God, whose cause it is, and in whom we trust for the guidance and direction of the affair better than human prudence can effect or understand, since the object is entirely, purely, and simply directed to His glory and service and the exaltation of His holy faith, I have resolved to adopt the course which you will learn from the Duke of Alba, to whom I write about it at great length. In conformity therewith and the orders he will give to you, you will act in the business with the discretion, dexterity, suavity and prudence which we expect of you, keeping in close communication with the Duke (of Alba) and carrying out his orders explicitly.”[202]