Mendoza in England was less cautious than his master. His position, as we have seen, was a humiliating one, as Elizabeth persisted in her refusal to receive him as ambassador, and he was exposed to daily slights from those who took their tone from the Queen. When Charles Paget went to England on Guise’s errand in August-September, 1583, he was directed to Francis Throckmorton for the purpose of obtaining the information he sought; this man being probably the person referred to in the correspondence already quoted, as having been willing to kill Elizabeth a few months previously at Guise’s bidding. However that may be, Throckmorton was an intimate of Mendoza, who had been informed of all that had been discussed in Paris, and both he and Charles Paget, whilst he was in England, were closely watched. Through his numerous spies Walsingham was perfectly aware of all that had been so incautiously handled by Guise; the whole of the invasion project had been known to Elizabeth’s Government for months, and though Charles Paget, who was a spy, was allowed to get clear away to France, no sooner was he gone than the blow fell upon those in England with whom he had conferred. Francis Throckmorton was arrested, as was the new Earl of Northumberland and his son, whilst the Earl of Arundel was summoned before the Privy Council, and Lord Paget and Charles Arundell (of Wardour) fled to France. Mendoza was deeply concerned at the arrest of his friend Throckmorton, and wrote to Philip an account of it, cautiously worded, but sufficiently inculpatory: “The Catholics are quite cowed.... Only one paper was found upon Throckmorton, containing a list of the principal ports in England, and particulars with regard to them, and the chief gentlemen and Catholics resident in them. For this they carried him at once to the Tower, and it is feared that his life is in danger, although he informed me by a cipher note, written on a playing-card and thrown out of the window, that he denies that the document is in his handwriting, the hand being a disguised one. He told them that some person had thrown it into his house for the purpose of injuring him, and he assures me that he will endure a thousand deaths rather than accuse any one, which message he begs me to convey to his Catholic friends.... I have written to the lady in prison [_i.e._, Mary Stuart], encouraging her, and begging her not to grieve over the matter to the detriment of her health, but the business, it may be feared, may imperil her life if the negotiations in France are entirely discovered.”[252]