The Cobhams belonged to the party of conservative nobles, ready to turn against Elizabeth the moment she was in danger, and by a trick of one of the younger brothers, Thomas—they were notoriously a turbulent lot—the precious packet of letters was spirited away to the Spanish ambassador in London and a dummy packet substituted for it. When this was opened with great anticipation before the Queen’s Council in London, to their dismay they found nothing but a confused jumble written in the same cipher. But they were not to be baulked. At least they had Charles Bailly safe under lock and bars, and the rack might induce him to talk. He began by making a grave mistake, writing letters—of course intercepted—to the Bishop of Ross that, now that the real letters had reached their destination without being deciphered, they had nothing to fear; that though they tore him to pieces on the rack he would confess nothing; and he begged the Bishop to tell him what answers he should give to his examiners. The Bishop, claiming ecclesiastical and diplomatic immunity, was just as imprudent as his secretary, urging him to stand firm and defy the English and gain the lasting gratitude of Mary. The poor wretch knew little of the details of Ridolfi’s mission, but he had written the cipher letters he bore; and gradually the agony of torture wrung from him all he knew.[200] Every day he sent fresh appealing letters to the Bishop of Ross, with the only result at length of lodging the Bishop himself in the Tower, threatened with the rack, notwithstanding his mitre and diplomatic position. Bailly deposed that Alba had received Ridolfi favourably, and had sent him on to Rome and Madrid to demand armed help in England for the two persons whose identity had been concealed by numbers.