It included a conspiracy against a friendly sovereign, immense service to the Church, and a murder.  His passion for intrigue, his love of God, and his hatred of man, would all be gratified at once.  Thus, although the Moorish revolt within the heart of his kingdom had hardly been terminated—­although his legions and his navies were at that instant engaged in a contest of no ordinary importance with the Turkish empire—­although the Netherlands, still maintaining their hostility and their hatred, required the flower of the Spanish army to compel their submission, he did not hesitate to accept the dark adventure which was offered to him by ignoble hands.

One Ridolfi, a Florentine, long resident in England, had been sent to the Netherlands as secret agent of the Duke of Norfolk.  Alva read his character immediately, and denounced him to Philip as a loose, prating creature, utterly unfit to be entrusted with affairs of importance.  Philip, however, thinking more of the plot than of his fellow-actors, welcomed the agent of the conspiracy to Madrid, listened to his disclosures attentively, and, without absolutely committing himself by direct promises, dismissed him with many expressions of encouragement.

On the 12th of July, 1571, Philip wrote to the Duke of Alva, giving an account of his interview with Roberto Ridolfi.  The envoy, after relating the sufferings of the Queen of Scotland, had laid before him a plan for her liberation.  If the Spanish monarch were willing to assist the Duke of Norfolk and his friends, it would be easy to put upon Mary’s head the crown of England.  She was then to intermarry with Norfolk.  The kingdom of England was again to acknowledge the authority of Rome, and the Catholic religion to be everywhere restored.  The most favorable moment for the execution of the plan would be in August or September.  As Queen Elizabeth would at that season quit London for the country, an opportunity would be easily found for seizing and murdering her.  Pius V., to whom Ridolfi had opened the whole matter, highly approved the scheme, and warmly urged Philip’s cooperation.  Poor and ruined as he was himself; the Pope protested that he was ready to sell his chalices, and even his own vestments, to provide funds for the cause.  Philip had replied that few words were necessary to persuade him.  His desire to see the enterprize succeed was extreme, notwithstanding the difficulties by which it was surrounded.  He would reflect earnestly upon the subject, in the hope that God, whose cause it was, would enlighten and assist him.  Thus much he had stated to Ridolfi, but he had informed his council afterwards that he was determined to carry out the scheme by certain means of which the Duke would soon be informed.  The end proposed was to kill or to capture Elizabeth, to set at liberty the Queen of Scotland, and to put upon her head the crown of England.  In this enterprize he instructed the Duke of Alva secretly to assist, without however resorting to open hostilities in his