From that time, May, 1577, Guaras was watched almost night and day, and most of his letters intercepted, though not many could be read. On the 28th September, 1577, he proposed to Zayas, King Philip’s secretary, that he should be allowed to arrange for the kidnapping and conveyance to Spain of some of the important Catholic Flemish nobles then in England, or to promote a revolt in Ireland; and he continues by saying, “I have received the enclosed letters from the Queen of Scotland. I have perfectly safe means of sending and receiving letters for her, and the world is praying that God may be preserving her for some great service to the fear of this Queen and her friends. I am encouraging her with letters of comfort until she can be served by acts.”[218] On the 4th October Guaras wrote another inflammatory letter to Zayas, detailing the plans which he said had been agreed upon by England and the Flemish nobles to throw off the Spanish yoke for good by the aid of Elizabeth. He passionately cries for prompt reprisals upon the English, but he complains that his letters are read, and he fears his ciphers may be discovered. At midnight on the 19th October, 1577, the Sheriff of London with an armed force appeared before the house of Guaras in Thames Street. In the Queen’s name entrance was forced and Guaras placed under arrest, all his papers being seized, and he himself a few days later placed in solitary confinement in Newgate. His clerk, in conveying the news to Zayas, understood the gravity of the affair, for from the first the authorities refused to acknowledge the prisoner’s diplomatic status. “God deliver us from these troubles,” he wrote, “for I promise your worship that unless some remedy be sent from Spain my master Antonio de Guaras will find himself in dire trouble, as will all of us in his house, for we are sore distressed. With all earnestness I supplicate you to let his Majesty know, in the hope that delivery may be sent to us.” Guaras himself writes from prison in hot indignation. He had, he says, placed the letters from the Queen of Scots and King Philip in a safe place, and they had not been captured, but he knows that much of his correspondence has been sent to England by the Flemish nobles, and, reading between the lines, one sees that the poor wretch is in mortal fear, though he passionately protests his innocence whilst vituperating his captors.