with Philip, had been systematically conducting his correspondence with
Don John and Escovedo, in order to elicit some evidence of the imputed
scheme. "'T was the only way," said Perez to Philip, "to make them
unbare their bosoms to the sword."--"I am quite of the same opinion,"
replied Philip to Perez, "for, according to my theology, you would do
your duty neither to God nor the world, unless you did as you are doing."
Yet the excellent pair of conspirators at Madrid could wring no damning
proofs from the lips of the supposititious conspirators in Flanders, save
that Don John, after Escovedo's arrival in Madrid, wrote, impatiently and
frequently, to demand that he should be sent back, together with the
money which he had gone to Spain to procure. "Money, more money, and
Escovedo," wrote the Governor, and Philip was quite willing to accept
this most natural exclamation as evidence of his brother's designs
against his crown. Out of these shreds and patches--the plot against
England, the Pope's bull, the desire expressed by Don John to march into
France as a simple adventurer, with a few thousand men at his back--
Perez, according to his own statement, drew up a protocol, afterwards
formally approved by Philip, which concluded with the necessity of taking
Escovedo's life, instantly but privately, and by poison. The Marquis de
Los Velos, to whom the memorial was submitted for his advice, averred
that if the death-bed wafer were in his own lips, he should vote for the
death of the culprit. Philip had already jumped to the same conclusion;
Perez joyfully undertook the business, having received carte blanche from
the King, and thus the unfortunate secretary was doomed. Immediately
after the arrival of Escovedo in Madrid, he addressed a letter to the
King. Philip filed it away among other despatches, with this annotation:
"the 'avant courier' has arrived--it is necessary to make great haste,
and to despatch him before he murders us."

The King, having been thus artfully inflamed against his brother and his