In the meanwhile the long delay was driving Mary Stuart and the English Catholics to desperation. The Queen had been taken from the mild custody of Lord Shrewsbury, and was now kept a close prisoner in the hands of very different gaolers. Her one hope was in Philip and Mendoza; but as month followed month whilst her treatment became harsher and no succour came—for the vast plans of Philip could only be carried out, if at all, with infinite preliminaries—the unhappy woman became almost vehement in her prayers that the movement should be made before it was too late. In November, 1584, she wrote to Mendoza: “Let the end be what it may, and whatever becomes of me, no matter what change may be made in my condition, pray use all diligence in forwarding the execution of the great enterprise without any regard for the personal danger I may incur. I shall look upon my life as well spent if by its sacrifice I can help to relieve the multitude of oppressed children of the Holy Catholic Church.” Both she and Mendoza believed at this time that her life was in danger unless the Spanish attack was delivered in time to avert the supposed evil intention, and the ambassador, writing to Philip, added his own supplications to those of the Queen that no more time should be lost. What Mendoza dreaded even more than Mary’s murder by the English, was the possibility of her escape by their means, as she would then owe her life to heretics, and would thereafter presumably be an untrustworthy instrument against them. “If, on the contrary, she perish, as may be feared, it cannot fail to bring scandal and reproach upon your Majesty, because as you are, after her, the nearest Catholic heir of the blood royal of England, some false suspicion might be aroused at your having abandoned the good Queen to be ruined by the heretics, in order to open the door to your Majesty’s own advantage.”[262] This idea of Philip’s claim to the English succession was industriously kept alive by Allen, Parsons, and Hugh Owen, who had been appointed a committee to advise the Duke of Parma in Flanders with regard to the English enterprise, until the breaking out of the civil war in France, and the open support given to the Dutch rebels and Huguenots by Elizabeth, changed the centre of intrigue from Flanders to Rome; and Allen and Parsons were sent thither to work in favour of the Spanish plans.