Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/200

186 REIGN Of ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. without mercy, and spared the rich who misled them, when anything was to be gained by their lives ; while the owners of the great estates which were to repay the expenses of the army were safe within the Scottish borders. If they escaped abroad the Queen could not touch their lands without an Act of Parliament, and in the way of this there would be difficulties which she was earnest to avoid. She again wrote therefore to demand them of Murray ; but Murray, had he been willing to comply, was evidently without the power, and she had to think of other means. If force was costly, treachery might be cheap. Sir Robert Constable has been seen once in the discharge of his dishonourable office. Still maintaining the character of a concealed friend, he fol- lowed his cousin to Fernihurst, where he was warmly received by the Laird and all the party. Both West- moreland and old Norton complained of the cowardice of the Southern Catholics ; and Constable, whose busi- ness was to tempt them if possible to come back to Eng- land and sue for their pardons, humoured their discon- tent, and began cautiously to suggest, that, instead of trusting to rebellion, they should try some other plan. Westmoreland was proud of his birth, proud of his honourable house, and he shrank with English sensi- tiveness from a taint upon his scutcheon. It was easy to persuade him that he would be of more use to the cause which he had at heart, by working legitimately by the side of his friends at home, than by staying abroad and waiting for revolution, or by intriguing to