As the damning facts were gradually wrung out of the miserable accomplices in the plot, during the summer and autumn of 1571 the position of de Spes became daily more impossible in England. His name was constantly cropping up in the depositions, and every deponent had some evidence to give of his activity in forwarding this conspiracy to overturn the Government to which he was accredited. Even then, semi-prisoner as he was, and himself in danger of punishment or ignominious expulsion, he never ceased to plot; and his eagerness made him and his master an easy prey to an amusing piece of successful mystification that any person less blinded by hate than he would have seen through at once. It will be recollected that John Hawkins’s trading expedition to Central America had been treacherously attacked by a superior Spanish force at St. Juan de Lua, Mexico, in October, 1568, Hawkins with difficulty escaping with only two tiny ships. Property of great value and over a hundred men had been captured by the Spaniards and sent to Seville, the unfortunate sailors being delivered to the Inquisition and condemned to slavery. John Hawkins was the last man in the world to reconcile himself tamely to such a loss; and through a Catholic friend of his, George Fitzwilliam, a kinsman of the Duchess of Feria, he opened negotiations in Spain for the release of his sailors and the return of his property, on condition that he deserted the English service with the Queen’s fleet of fourteen armed ships, and joined that of the King of Spain for the invasion of England in favour of Mary Stuart. Poor Mary, as usual, was easily hoodwinked, as indeed was Fitzwilliam himself at first, and the Ferias eagerly listened to the suggestion of apostasy of such a man as John Hawkins. Fitzwilliam returned to London from Spain with an encouraging answer and tokens for the Queen of Scots, in order that she might be asked to assure the Ferias and Philip of the genuineness of Hawkins’s offer. Cecil, who was behind Hawkins in the whole negotiation and enjoyed the position almost as much as the great sailor, smoothed over the difficulties of access to Mary, who, only too ready to believe in the honesty of others, sent him back to Spain with all sorts of assurances, letters for Philip and the Ferias, and a beautiful missal bound in gold for the Duchess of Feria, wherein she had written “_Absit nobis gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi.—Marie R._” When Fitzwilliam came to him, de Spes was easily drawn into the plan, and became enthusiastically certain of the _bonâ fides_ of Hawkins. The more he sees of him, he says, the more convinced he is of his honesty. He is a Catholic, and very ambitious; and only once, and then but for a moment, did the gullible ambassador somewhat distrust Cecil’s complaisancy in allowing Fitzwilliam easy access to Mary Stuart, and to run backwards and forwards unimpeded between England and the coast of Spain.