Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/467

I57L] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 453 brother Thomas Cobham, however, who had escaped hanging for his atrocities in the Bay of Biscay, and had taken now to conspiracy and Catholicism, happened to be in the room ; the prisoner contrived to let him know by signs that the letters were of consequence; and young Cobham, taking the Warden apart, ' threw him- self in tears at his feet/ and told him that if the packet was taken to the council the Duke of Norfolk was a dead man. Lord Cobham said that at first he refused to listen. He put the letters in his pocket, and with the books and other papers in a bag he crossed the river to Cecil's house. On the way his heart failed him. He left the bag with Cecil; he said nothing of the letters, but carried the packet back to his house, and ' being again importuned by his unhappy brother/ he sealed it and sent it to the Bishop of Ross, desiring him to come the next day to Blackfriars and open it in his presence. 1 As it had been seen by the searchers, the Warden knew that he would be called upon to account for it. He could but give the Bishop a few hours to do the best that he could. The Bishop, with the packet in his hands, instantly possessed himself of the dangerous letters, and then, creeping across in the darkness to Don Guerau, he com- posed, with the ambassador's assistance, another set of ciphered papers sufficiently tinctured with disloyal mat- ter to satisfy Cecil's suspicions, while all that touched the real secret was kept out of sight. A copy of the 1 Notes of Lord Cobham's confession, in Cecil's hand, taken October 14 : JI1SS. Domestic, Hulls House.