On the 4th May, 1583, Tassis wrote to Philip that Guise, in view of the changed position in Scotland, had decided to negotiate with the English Catholics for a rising in England. “He has already carried the matter so far that he expects to have it put into execution very shortly, and intends to be present in person.” He asked for 100,000 crowns from the Pope and Philip, to be ready in Paris when he wanted it, though Tassis says that he does not expect that his Holiness will send much. He needed this large sum, it appears, principally “for one object which I dare not venture to mention here, but which, if it be effected, will make a noise in the world.” This object was no other than the murder of Elizabeth, which was to be the prelude of the revolution to place Mary on the throne. Two days before this letter to Philip was written by Tassis the Nuncio in Paris wrote to the Papal Secretary of State, the Cardinal of Como, much more plainly. Guise and his brother Mayenne, he says, had arranged for the murder of the Queen by one of her courtiers, secretly a Catholic, who owed her a grudge for executing certain of his relations. This man had made the proposal to Mary, and she had refused to entertain it, but the Duke of Guise was less scrupulous and had promised the assassin 100,000 francs for the work. He did not ask the Pope’s aid for this, but for the invasion of the South of England, which he, Guise, intended to effect immediately after the Queen had been killed. Neither the Nuncio nor the Cardinal, nor even his Holiness, had anything but praise for this saintly plan, and readily promised one-quarter of the sum needed if Philip would find the other three-quarters.