Blois, in March 1560. Stories were put about that the young French King
was a leper, and was kidnapping fair-haired children, in whose blood he
meant to bathe. The Huguenots had been conspiring ever since September
1559, when they seem to have sent to Elizabeth for aid in money. {165a}
More recently they had held a kind of secret convention at Nantes, and
summoned bands who were to lurk in the woods, concentrate at Amboise,
attack the chateau, slay the Guises, and probably put the King and Queen
Mary under the Prince de Conde, who was by the plotters expected to take
the part which Arran played in Scotland. It is far from certain that
Conde had accepted the position. In all this we may detect English
intrigue and the gold of Elizabeth. Calvin had been consulted; he
disapproved of the method of the plot, still more of the plot itself. But
he knew all about it. "All turns on killing Antonius," he wrote,
"Antonius" being either the Cardinal or the Duc de Guise. {165b}

The conspiracy failed at Amboise, on March 17-19, 1560. Throckmorton was
present, and describes the panic and perplexity of the Court, while he
eagerly asks to be promptly and secretly recalled, as suspicion has
fallen on himself. He sent Tremaine home through Brittany, where he
gathered proposals for betraying French towns to Elizabeth, rather
prematurely. Surrounded by treachery, and destitute of funds, the Guises
could not aid the Regent, and Throckmorton kept advising Cecil to "strike
while the iron was hot," and paralyse French designs. The dying Regent
of Scotland never lost heart in circumstances so desperate.

Even before the outbreak at Perth, Mary of Guise had been in very bad
health. When the English crossed the Border to beleaguer Leith, Lord
Erskine, who had maintained neutrality in Edinburgh Castle, allowed her
to come there to die (April 1, 1560).