as we shall presently see, with any intention of his personally assuming the sovereignty after Elizabeth was disposed of. The question of Mary Stuart’s complicity in Babington’s murder-project is one that does not directly concern us here, but there can be but little doubt that, even though it was not conveyed to her in so many words, she was well aware of the whole plan.[275] At least Mendoza, who should have known, believed that she was; for on the collapse of the conspiracy he wrote to Philip: “I am of opinion that the Queen of Scotland must be well acquainted with the whole affair, to judge by the contents of a letter she has written to me.... Doubtless it is God’s will to give England to your Majesty by the strong arm only, since He has allowed so much Catholic blood to be lost, as will be shed by the discovery of this business. Nothing has been said yet about my letters, but even if they were discovered and printed they are so worded that another construction could be placed upon them.” Mendoza was too sanguine in this respect. His letters were read and his conversations with the messengers repeated. There was no need on the part of Elizabeth and Walsingham to go out of their way to put harmless constructions upon his words, which, indeed, were plain enough, and a shout of execration went up all over England at an ambassador who thus connived at the murder of a sovereign and a lady. Already the alarming reports of spies had aroused the worst fears of Elizabeth and her people. The Queen, particularly, dreaded the vengeance which seemed hanging over her. For years she had defied Philip and had beaten him in the game of diplomacy, depending for her immunity upon the continued war in the Netherlands and upon Philip’s distrust of France. But she saw that France could not help her now, whatever her extremity, for the Guises were in arms and the wretched fribble upon the throne was but a straw borne hither and thither upon the tempest, whilst the Huguenots were grimly awaiting the hour when they themselves would have to fight for freedom and for life. The war in Zeeland, moreover, was now only maintained by English help, and when the dreaded Spanish descent upon England was made Elizabeth would have to abandon the Dutch Protestants to their fate, and the last bulwark of Reform would be submerged by the flood of Spanish popery.