At about the same time the other partner in this diplomatic enterprise,
William Bodman, communicated to Alexander, the result of his observations
in England. He stated that Lords Burghley, Buckhurst, and Cobham, Sir
Christopher Hatton, and Comptroller Croft, were secretly desirous of
peace with Spain and that they had seized the recent opportunity of her
pique against the Earl of Leicester to urge forward these underhand
negotiations. Some progress had been made; but as no accredited
commissioner arrived from the Prince of Parma, and as Leicester was
continually writing earnest letters against peace, the efforts of these
counsellors had slackened. Bodman found them all, on his arrival,
anxious as he said, "to get their necks out of the matter;" declaring
everything which had been done to be pure matter of accident, entirely
without the concurrence of the Queen, and each seeking to outrival the
other in the good graces of her Majesty. Grafigni informed Bodman,
however, that Lord Cobham was quite to be depended upon in the affair,
and would deal with him privately, while Lord Burghley would correspond
with Andrea de Loo at Antwerp. Moreover, the servant of Comptroller
Croft would direct Bodman as to his course, and would give him daily
instructions.

Now it so happened that this servant of Croft, Norris by name, was a
Papist, a man of bad character, and formerly a spy of the Duke of Anjou.
"If your Lordship or myself should use such instruments as this," wrote
Walsingham to Leicester, "I know we should bear no small reproach; but
it is the good hap of hollow and doubtful men to be best thought of."
Bodman thought the lords of the peace-faction and their adherents not
sufficiently strong to oppose the other party with success. He assured
Farnese that almost all the gentlemen and the common people of England
stood ready to risk their fortunes and to go in person to the field to
maintain the cause of the Queen and religious liberty; and that the