cruelties practised on their fellow professors, and they concurred in a plan to betray Hammes and Guines to the French. This scheme was defeated by the means of an English spy who became cognisant of the secret. The mischief, though stopped there, soon showed itself in another quarter. Thomas Stafford, the second son of Lord Stafford, and grandson of the late Duke of Buckingham, mustered a small army of English, French, and Scotch, and, sailing from Dieppe, landed at Scarborough in Yorkshire, and surprised the castle there. He was accompanied by one Richard Saunders and others, and flattered himself that Philip and Mary were so unpopular that they had only to hoist their banner and the people would flock to it. He made a proclamation that he was come to deliver the country from the tyranny of strangers, and to defeat the designs of the unlawful and unworthy queen, who was wasting the wealth of the kingdom on her Spanish husband, and was about to bring in a Spanish army of 12,000 men to subdue it. But he soon found that, however much the public might dislike the Spanish match, they were not at all inclined to rebel against their queen.
Wotton, the English ambassador in France, had duly warned his Court of the designs of Stafford, and on the fourth day the Earl of Westmoreland appeared with a strong body of troops before the castle, and compelled Stafford to surrender at discretion. Stafford, Saunders, and three or four others were sent to London, and committed to the Tower, where, under torture, they were made to confess that the King of France had instigated and assisted their enterprise. Stafford was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 28th of May, and the next day three of his confederates were hanged at Tyburn. Saunders had probably turned queen's evidence, for he received a pardon.
The Council, which had been averse to the war, and which had advised that, instead of appearing as principals, we should merely confine ourselves to the furnishing that aid which we were bound to by our ancient treaties with the House of Burgundy, now felt itself justified in proclaiming open war against the King of France, as the violator of the treaty betwixt the nations, in having harboured the traitors against the queen, and in having sent them over in French ships to Scarborough with arms, ammunition, and money.
The King of France undoubtedly had from the commencement of Mary's reign been a secret and persevering enemy of hers. She had always shown a predilection for the Royal House of Spain, and her marriage with Philip completed the cause of enmity. Henry had maintained his ambassador in England rather as a spy and fomenter of treasons than as an emissary of peace. Noailles and the Bishop of Acqs had to do with all the rebellions which had distracted Mary's reign, from those of Northumberland and Wyatt to those of Dudley and Stafford. The latter ambassador, when recalled by Henry on the proclamation of war, took the opportunity at Calais to examine the fortifications, and reported to his monarch that they were in a very neglected and dilapidated condition. At his request Senarpont, the Governor of Boulogne, had gone over in disguise, and made the same examination with the same result, reporting that the town might be readily captured by a sudden and unexpected assault; information which we shall find was not neglected.
Philip, having obtained what he wanted, hastened over to Flanders, and neither Mary nor England ever saw him again. His abode in this country had been accompanied by so much bloodshed and religious persecution, that no one hesitated to attribute these horrors to him; and he was seen to retire with a feeling of greatly augmented aversion in every one except his infatuated queen. Yet even she is said to have been so exasperated at his conduct during his last sojourn, and so jealous of his attentions to his beautiful cousin, Christina of Denmark, the widowed Duchess of Lorraine, that she cut to shreds a portrait of Philip with her own hands. What was of much more moment, however, was the fact, that Philip had no sooner arrived in England than the persecutions had been renewed with all their vigour. During his short stay ten men and women were burnt in Smithfield, and executions far more bloody and numerous followed the insurrection of Stafford than had marked the suppression of Wyatt's rebellion.
The Earl of Pembroke, accompanied by Lord Robert Dudley as his master of ordnance, followed Philip at the end of July with 7,000 men. They joined the army of Philip, consisting of men of many nations—Germans, Italians, Flemings, Dalmatians, Croats, Illyrians, and others—making altogether a force of 40,000 men, the supreme command of which was given to the rejected suitor of the Princess Elizabeth, Philibert, Duke of Savoy. The duke successfully menaced an attack upon Marienberg, Rocroy, and Guise, but he finally drew up before St. Quentin, on the right bank of the Somme. The King of France endeavoured to throw supplies into the place, by conveying them across the vast marshes which extended along one side of it. On the 9th of August, the Constable Montmorency marched from La Fere with a large body of cavalry and 15,000 foot. He posted himself along the marsh, and put out boats, which he had placed upon carts, to convey over the provisions. Some of these reached the town, but before any great number had accomplished this, the Spaniards, making a detour and coming suddenly upon them with 6,000 horse, broke the cavalry of the French, and then charging the infantry, put them to the rout. One half of the French army was taken or destroyed: the constable, the Marshal St. Andre, and most of the officers were captured. The infantry under Philip, and the English auxiliaries who had guarded the opposite banks of the river, marched to the town and carried it by assault. Such was the terror created in France that many believed if Philip had advanced upon Paris, he might have taken it. But the character of Philip was distinguished by caution, not enterprise. He ordered his army to lay siege to Ham and the Cattelet, which places they eventually took; but in the meantime the French had fortified Paris. The English fleet made descents upon France at various points, menaced Bordeaux and Bayonne, and plundered the defenceless inhabitants of the coasts. This was all that was achieved, except, what Philip probably most looked for, the drawing the Duke of Guise out of Italy. But this, whilst it
