When the news came of the arrest of Francis Throckmorton and his friends, and the expulsion of Mendoza, in January, 1584, Allen and Parsons were at Tournay busily discussing and arranging with Alexander Farnese, Philip’s viceroy in Flanders, the details of the proposed invasion of England in conjunction with Guise and a rising of English Catholics. At first the English priests affected to believe that the arrests would have no serious effects upon their plans. “If,” they wrote to Philip, “these men had been cast into prison in consequence of our great business, they would, as usual, have been put into the Tower of London; and we feel sure, therefore, that up to the present our adversaries have not discovered any particulars of our plans.”[255] On the contrary, they continue, what has happened should only have the effect of encouraging his Majesty to carry the matter through with greater celerity. “It is nothing short of a miracle that a business known to so many friends for two years past should have remained undiscovered so long; but it cannot remain hidden much longer, so that unless aid comes from abroad at once the Catholics in the island will be utterly ruined. We therefore cast ourselves at the feet of his Majesty, and cry unto him for the love of Jesus Christ that he will not abandon so many suffering souls, who with their hands raised to heaven are looking eagerly for his help. The time is favourable, and every day’s delay is filled with danger.” Alas! the zealous Churchmen, who were still at this time acting in concert with the Duke of Guise, did not even yet understand the character and aims of Philip. The King, keener sighted than the priests, knew full well that the arrest of the English Catholics and the expulsion of Mendoza meant not only the failure of the loosely-knit plan of invasion with Scottish-Guisan co-operation, but a remodelling of the whole scheme for subduing England to his will. He faced the new problem cautiously and speciously, as was his wont, for he could not afford to alienate the Papacy by avowing political ends, nor dared he at first openly to fly in the face of Guise. Mendoza was summoned to Spain to confer with his master, for Mendoza was always haughtily oblivious to any but purely Spanish means and ends, and to him was confided the entire direction of the English enterprise from the Spanish embassy in Paris, to which he was appointed. But ere he arrived at his post the English Jesuits, recognising, at last, that the Scottish-Guisan plan was really frustrated, had trimmed their sails in the direction most likely to attain the ends they aimed at—namely, that which would best please their Spanish paymaster.