Note 169 — Chapter VI · 1565-1569

How serious the situation was for Elizabeth, and how wide the ramifications of the Catholic intrigue at the time, may be seen by a letter written shortly after this by the English spy Rogers to Cecil. Arthur Pole, who was a prisoner in the Tower, had surrendered in Mary’s favour his claim to the Crown of England, and if he could escape from his prison was to come to Scotland to support her with others of his kin. Darnley himself, trying to outbid Mary, had boasted that forty gentlemen and more in England were ready to serve him. Letters passed fortnightly between the Countess of Lennox in the Tower and her son, whilst every month an emissary of the northern Catholic gentry came in disguise to Darnley from Carlisle. A regular plan, moreover, was prepared for the capture and fortification of Scilly in the Catholic interest, and the representative of the Irish rebel Shan O’Neil was made much of by Darnley, who, amongst other presents, sent to Shan two hundred crowns with which to buy whiskey. The hopes that Mary and Darnley built upon the English Catholics and Spain were therefore well founded, if they had been well handled.—Scottish Calendar, vol. ii. 293.