Mendoza’s hatred of Elizabeth outran his discretion, and in conveying all this to Philip he wrote: “Of all the plots they have hatched these many years past none have been apparently so serious as this. They have never before proposed to make away with the Queen, which is now the first step they intend to take. As she so richly deserves her punishment, it may be believed that God has heard the groans of the afflicted Catholics and desires to bring it upon her thus swiftly. Let Him dispose as He will; but if, for our sins, He shall ordain that it do not succeed there will be much Catholic blood shed in England. Up to the present your Majesty is pledged no further than the risk of 100,000 crowns, which have been given to the priests sent thither, and if secrecy be kept we need only watch what comes of it. If the Queen falls the country will submit without bloodshed, and the Netherlands war will be at an end.” Philip was horrified when he received this letter, and scribbled upon its margin, in that appalling scrawl of his, scornful comments which showed that his cold, secretive nature rebelled against the rash enthusiasm of his usually discreet Mendoza. How could such a secret be kept, he asked, if all these people were chattering about it? How could the schismatics, or outwardly conforming Catholics, be trusted? They were mere heretics and no better; and how imprudent of Mendoza, his ambassador, to send to the conspirators two such compromising letters as those mentioned! Philip had heard too often in the past of such plots as this, and he had thrown away already too much money in subsidising such adventures. Nothing but conquest, he was convinced, would serve his turn now; and to that end he was bending all his energies night and day, penning the Pope closer into the corner, inflaming more than ever the French ambitions of Guise, and fomenting trouble in France; and, above all, collecting stores, arms, and ships from all his vast dominions to crush Elizabeth for good and for all in the interests of the Church and Spain.