But, withal, Philip was not a man to throw away a chance if he could gain it with a minimum of responsibility, and he blended his somewhat caustic remarks upon the lack of secrecy and caution displayed with saintly approval of the plan to murder his sister-in-law. “As the affair is so much in God’s service,” he wrote to Mendoza on the 5th September, “it certainly deserves to be supported, and we hope that our Lord will prosper it, unless our sins are an impediment thereto. It appears to be based upon a solid foundation and to have the support of many Catholics, but it is difficult to keep a secret entrusted to so many people, and it causes me anxiety that it should be so widespread, and even schismatics let into the secret.... But the importance of the matter is great, and perhaps the time has arrived when God will strike for His own cause.” Philip left in no doubt his own attitude with regard to the matter. The Spanish aid should be ready, but should not be sent until the murder of Elizabeth had been effected. Let the “principal executions” be done, he urged, without a moment’s delay. “Everything depends upon the one act which is to be the commencement. When this is done they may with one voice acclaim it, and the way will be clear, whilst if the intention is discovered before its execution each one will be destroyed separately and union will be impossible. As all hangs upon this, and the cause is God’s own, we must hope that He will prosper it.” Gifford was sent on his way to England with the King’s message, and soon the heavy hand of Walsingham fell upon the conspirators, who had all through been living in a fool’s paradise, betrayed, as was Mary herself, by the instruments they thought so trusty and faithful. Philip had been right in his distrust; once more conspiracy subsidised by Spanish intrigue and money had failed, more disastrously this time than ever before; and the King of Spain, whilst deploring in conventional terms the dire fate of most of those upon whom he had depended for an auxiliary movement in England on the approach of his fleet, accepted the reverse with stolid philosophy. In one respect, indeed, it was to some extent a relief to him. There is no doubt that he greatly esteemed Mary Stuart for her steadfast Catholicism, and would have placed her upon the throne of England if his attempt at conquest had been successful during her life; but there was always lurking in the background the fear that after her accession she might be drawn by French intrigue or maternal solicitude to adopt her son as her heir, in which case Philip’s vast efforts and expenditure might have been in vain. But with Mary a condemned prisoner, whose head might fall at any moment, it was the present rather than the future sovereignty of England that was now to be decided, and slowly, with the aid of Parsons and Allen, the claims of Philip to the English succession were advanced tentatively even in England itself, though not,