Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/354

334 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 60. directed them to offer their swords to the Prince of Orange, obtain employment with the garrison at Flush- ing, and either betray the town or burn the Dutch fleet. 1 The plot was revealed to Cecil and defeated : but others followed. Spanish gold was used and promised freely. Colonel Chester, an English officer in Walcheren, undertook, for 30,000 crowns, to introduce the Spaniards into the island. 2 Two others, Captain Poole and Captain Ralph Hasleby, proposed to kill or carry off Orange : 3 and Hasleby actually tried it. Another scoundrel, a Captain "Wingham, sought a situation in the Prince's household with the same purpose. Then two more, a Captain Ellice and a Colonel Balfour, were found en- gaged in the same trade. 4 And at length the Prince, shocked and frightened at the treachery which sur- 1 The story of the negotiation is at Simancas, in the hand, I think, of Don Guerau de Espes, the late ambassador, who was then at Paris. Compare Ralph Lane to Cecil, May, 1573 : MSS. Flanders. 2 Antonio de Guaras to Philip, 1573 : MS 8. Simancas. 3 'El Capitan Poole y Ralph Haselhy, en tiempo del Duque de Alva habian offrecido de entrcgar vivo el de Orange omataiie.' Puii- tos de cartas de Antonio de Guaras, 1574: MSS. Ibid. 4 In August, 1574, De Guaras writes : ' Hasleby and Chester have returned to England. It is arranged that Captain Ellice and Colonel Bal- four shall follow the Prince to Delft or Rotterdam, and there take or kill him. They hope they may get pos- session of one or other of these towns. If they kill the Prince, and also obtain a town for us, they ex- pect 20,000 crowns for the colonels, as much more for each of the cap- tains, and a further sum for the men. If they take the town, but miss the Prince, they will be content with 15,000 crowns among them all. If they secure the Prince without the town, they expect 30,000, the colonels to have in addition a pension of a thousand crowns, and the cap- tains one of three hundred. The agreement is to be drawn up in writing. Ellice says he has been long in the Prince's service and hates him.'