Almost simultaneously with this the group of English Catholics who had sent Ballard to Mendoza in May were able to supply the ambassador with the details and assurances he had requested to prove the seriousness of their intention. Their envoy on this occasion was Gilbert Gifford, brother of the Dean of Lille, and, according to Parsons, a strong opponent of the Spanish-Jesuit party. He unfolded to Mendoza the existence of a vast conspiracy in England, in which most of the Catholic nobles were implicated. The Earl of Arundel, son of the late Duke of Norfolk, and most of his kinsmen, with a score or so of other noblemen and gentry whose names Mendoza sent to Philip, were ready to rise in force whenever they were advised that the Spanish fleet was approaching. Sir William Stanley, in command of a large body of Irishmen intended for Flanders, would delay his departure if possible, revolt against the Queen, and join the invaders; the English force in Ireland under Bele would do likewise, whilst Claude Hamilton and a force of Scots would join the Catholics of the North on the signal being given. The very heretics themselves, they said, were ripe for revolution, tired of the burden of taxation; but, above all, a young man named Babington and some six confederates[274] had determined to kill Queen Elizabeth, in accordance with the suggestion previously made by them through Ballard. They only asked that Spain should support them when the deed was done. No Frenchmen should be concerned in the business, but promptitude was now vital, for every hour increased the risk of discovery; and they prayed Philip to let them know at once what he would do to rescue England. Mendoza jumped at all these proposals, for, according to Gifford, the greatest men in England were pledged to the rising—as apart from Babington’s murder plot; even the moderate Catholics being pledged to it. Two letters went off at once from the Spaniard to the heads of the enterprise, “praising the proposal as it deserved, as it was so Christian, just, and advantageous to our holy faith and to your Majesty’s service, worthy of spirits so Catholic as theirs and of the ancient valour of Englishmen.” If they succeeded in killing the Queen, promised Mendoza without authority, they should have the assistance they required from the Netherlands, and the assurance that King Philip would succour them. “I promised them this on my faith and word, urging them to hasten the execution.” Directly they had despatched the Queen, wrote Mendoza to them, let them seize Don Antonio and the Portuguese with him and lodge him in the Tower; get Sir William Stanley to seize the Queen’s fleet, unless Lord Admiral Howard was a trustworthy party to the plot, and let them be sure to kill Cecil, Walsingham, Hunsdon, Knollys, and Beal at the same time as the Queen.