Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/423

THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 409 to serve him, and entreat him to think well of me. ' To the Duke of Alva you will give my commenda- tions : you will admit him as far as you think proper into our plans and as you find him disposed, you will ask for his favourable letters to his Holiness and the King. You will require him as a Prince of honour not to betray us ; and you will leave our cipher with him, that we may keep him informed of what is going on among us. ' And, because the King of Portugal is also much offended with the Queen of England, I think that, being a most Catholic Prince, he cannot but favour us. As this Prince has no ambassador residing here through whom I can communicate with him, you will ask his Holiness and the Catholic King to introduce you io him : and when you shall have left them, and shall have let us know what we are to look for from them, you may return through Portugal, and tell the King, that if he will join our enterprise, I will undertake to see him satisfied for the injuries which he has sustained. He can help us much by throwing men into Ireland or Scotland. It will not be suspected, and his transports could be on the coast before a word had been heard about them. The Queen will have to divide her force. She will be dis- turbed and terrified, and the rest of the work can be executed with greater ease/ 1 tueatur Deus Optimus Maximus. Londini, vigesimo Martii 1571. ' Celeritudinis tuso addictissimus servus, 'THOMAS DUX -MSS. SimetKcas. 1 Commission of the Duke of Norfolk to Ridolfi : MSS. Simancas. An Italian version of the same do- cument has been printed by Laban- off from the Vatican Archives.