Ignorant, of course, of Murray’s collapse, Yaxley duly arrived at Segovia, where Philip was, on the 23rd October, 1565, and gave his letter and verbal message to the King. Fortunately Philip repeated this message to Guzman in his letter to him, written on the following day, and we are thus able to understand exactly how far Mary was willing to go in her ambitious plans. “The first thing,” writes Philip, “was to assure us in fair words of the great hope and confidence they reposed in me, desiring to govern themselves by my direction alone, and to do nothing without my consent and pleasure: for this reason they wish to inform me of the need in which they are, and assure us of their zealous desire to establish their realm anew under the Christian religion, and to join other Christian princes with that object. Not having sufficient forces of their own they begged me to aid them as a Christian monarch; and, in order to induce me to do so, the envoy set forth the danger in which the Queen and King of Scotland were, by reason of the heretics, stimulated and favoured by the English with men and money; so that the said sovereigns might easily fall into the hands of the rebels, and be conveyed abroad, leaving the State unprotected, unless I, in whom after God they put their trust, aided them with money and troops. If I would consent to do this it would not only be the means of destroying the rebels, but would confirm the King and Queen in their hope of succeeding to the English throne, and would banish their fear that the heretics would oust them, the real heirs, and elect some heretic instead. They promised that if they obtained the succession of the Crown by my means they would renew more closely the alliance and league between England and our house against the world, and leave all other friends for us. They also begged us to write urgent letters to the Queen of England, first asking her to release Lady Margaret (Lennox), and secondly to desist from aiding the Scottish rebels.”[167] Yaxley also asked that an accredited Spanish ambassador might be sent to Scotland to arrange a binding treaty and to advise Mary and her husband as to their proceedings.