The Vatican, always jealous of Spanish overreaching, still clung to the inclusion of Guise and the attack upon England across the Scottish border;[256] and Beton and other Scottish Catholics naturally followed a lead which offered such prospects for the aggrandisement of their country. But Allen and Parsons were already undeceived, for they had been in close touch with Spanish feeling in Flanders; and when the former was summoned to Paris by Beton and Guise in April, 1584, in order that they might convince him that the Scottish plan was the best, they came to high words, and Allen penned a vigorous defence of his own and the Spanish view. The English Catholics, he said, would never rise and join a force coming from Scotland, owing to the hatred and jealousy between the peoples; the King of Scots’ religion being more than doubtful, moreover, will make people believe that he is trying to conquer England for himself rather than for the Church, and the very Catholics will fight against him and his foreign Catholic allies. A landing in Scotland also, said Allen, would give Elizabeth and her Government time to prepare and mass their forces on the Border, whilst a descent on the Welsh or northern English coasts would find the people ready to welcome their deliverers and secure their footing before the Queen could organise resistance.[257] Before he surrendered his post to his successor, Mendoza, Tassis, the outgoing Spanish ambassador in Paris, also wrote a weighty memorandum to Philip enforcing the same view, whilst recommending him to send money to the King of Scots to keep him in hand;[258] and thus not many weeks passed from the failure of the combined Guisan and Jesuit plan before the English Jesuit and Spanish elements perfectly understood each other, and agreed that Spain must act alone in England. In May, 1584, Tassis wrote to Philip that Allen and Parsons were both in Paris: “Still of opinion that the enterprise should be directed against England itself, and on no account should it be attempted elsewhere.... Scotsmen here, impatient at the delay, are discussing the possibility of carrying through the business by other aid than that of your Majesty; and, although Allen and Parsons are trying to keep in with them as much as possible, they [_i.e._, Allen and Parsons] say that the English need no other patron than your Majesty, and they not only look to you for a remedy, but they say that even if you make the Queen of Scotland their Sovereign they hope you will not leave them hastily, or until everything is settled permanently. They also say they would be glad for your Majesty to keep some [English] ports in your hands, the better to assure matters.”[259] This was the thin end of the wedge; and, knowingly or not, the ideas of Allen and Parsons must even thus early have agreed with Philip’s humour at the time.