Europe, was himself under closest domestic inspection. There was one
Poley, a trusted servant of Lady Sidney, then living in the house of her
father Walsingham, during Sir Philip's absence, who was in close
communication with Lord Montjoy's brother, Blount, then high in favour of
Queen Elizabeth--"whose grandmother she might be for his age and hers"
--and with another brother Christopher Blount, at that moment in
confidential attendance upon Lord Leicester in Holland. Now Poley,
and both the Blounts, were, in reality, Papists, and in intimate
correspondence with the agents of the Queen of Scots, both at home and
abroad, although "forced to fawn upon Leicester, to see if they might
thereby live quiet." They had a secret "alphabet," or cipher, among
them, and protested warmly, that they "honoured the ground whereon Queen
Mary trod better than Leicester with all his generation; and that they
felt bound to serve her who was the only saint living on the earth."

It may be well understood then that the Earl's position was a slippery
one, and that great assumption might be unsafe. "He taketh the matter
upon him," wrote Morgan to the Queen of Scots, "as though he were an
absolute king; but he hath many personages about him of good place out of
England, the best number whereof desire nothing more than his confusion.
Some of them be gone with him to avoid the persecution for religion in
England. My poor advice and labour shall not be wanting to give
Leicester all dishonour, which will fall upon him in the end with shame
enough; though for the present he be very strong." Many of these
personages of good place, and enjoying "charge and credit" with the Earl
had very serious plans in their heads. Some of them meant "for the
service of God, and the advantage of the King of Spain, to further the
delivery of some notable towns in Holland and Zeeland to the said King
and his ministers," and we are like to hear of these individuals again.