Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/31

1569-] ENGLISH PARTIES. 1 7 insolences, it is because they have so far been too weak to oppose him successfully : but meanwhile they have collected their friends ; they have taken measures to undeceive the people as to the real character of the seizure, and they mean to make an end of the present infamous Government, to place the administration in the hands of Catholics, and compel the Queen to go along with them. 1 Your Excellency they trust will ap- prove, and they hope this realm will not lose the friend- ship of the King our master. They say that they will re-establish the Catholic religion there never was a more favourable opportunity and Cecil, who imagines that he has them all under his feet, will find himself left without a friend. ' Cecil himself meanwhile is commencing a furious persecution. The prisons are overflowing, and in Bride- well there are a hundred and fifty Spaniards, who are forced to listen to heretic sermons, and are tempted by offers of rewards to become heretics themselves. They have removed the sentries under my windows; but rather because of the frost than for any better reason. My garden gates are nailed up, and the knight who is on guard over me is established with his family in my porter's lodge. Cecil, Bedford, and the Lord Admiral 2 advocate war ; the Admiral, because of the opportunities which it will open to him for plunder. The rest of the 1 The words are so important that they must be given in the original : ' Entretanto se han pro- veydo de amigos y han dado a entender lo que pasa al pueblo, y VOL. IX. piensan quitar este gdbierno que ahora hay, tan maldito, y leyantar otro Oatolico, y hacer consentir en el a la Reyna.' 2 Clinton.