there must be no positive refusal, for a concerted action with the Scotch
lords and their adherents was indispensable. The secret, said the King,
had been profoundly kept, and neither in Spain nor in Rome had anything
been allowed to transpire. Alexander was warned therefore to do his best
to maintain the mystery, for the enemy was trying very hard to penetrate
their actions and their thoughts.

And certainly Alexander did his best. He replied to his master, by
transmitting copies of the letters he had been writing with his own hand
to the Queen, and of the, pacific messages he had sent her through
Champagny. and De Loo. She is just now somewhat confused, said he, and
those of her counsellors who desire peace, are more eager, than ever for
negotiation. She is very much afflicted with the loss of Deventer, and
is quarrelling with the French ambassador about the new conspiracy for
her assassination. The opportunity is a good one, and if she writes an
answer to my letter, said Alexander, we can keep the negotiation, alive,
while, if she does not, 'twill be a proof that she has contracted leagues
with other parties. But, in any event, the Duke fervently implored
Philip not to pause in his preparations for the great enterprise which he
had conceived in his royal breast. So urgent for the invasion was the
peace-loving general.

He alluded also to the supposition that the quarrel between her Majesty
and the French envoy was a mere fetch, and only one of the results of
Bellievre's mission. Whether that diplomatist had been sent to censure,
or in reality to approve, in the name of his master, of the Scottish
Queen's execution, Alexander would leave to be discussed by Don
Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in Paris; but he was of
opinion that the anger of the Queen with France was a fiction, and her
supposed league with France and Germany against Spain a fact. Upon this