04 RElGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 54. still talking of changing the government and over- throwing Cecil. He believed himself to be popular in London. He had persuaded himself that the Queen could not risk the danger of sending him under a guard through the streets. Don Guerau thought that he was mistaken. Though he regarded the heretics as children of hell, he respected their courage, nor did he expect, since the success at Hamburgh, that the city would be disturbed. The Government, to incur no unnecessary risk, sent the prisoner by water from Windsor. The banks between Westminster and London bridge were lined with crowds, who, according to La Mothe, were vociferous in their expressions of displeasure, but there was no attempt at rescue ; and when the Tower gates closed behind the head of the English nobility, no party in the country felt less pity for him than those whose fine-laid schemes he had played with arid ruined by his cowardice. On the 8th of October Don Guerau wrote to Philip :-
- The Earls of Northumberland, Westmoreland,
Cumberland, and Derby the whole Catholic body are furious at the timidity which the Duke has shown. The Earl of Northumberland's servant who was here a while ago about this business, has returned to me, and I have letters also in cipher from the Bishop of Ross. The sum of their message to me is this, that they will take forcible possession of the Queen of Scots. They will then make themselves masters of the northern
