upon whom writers sometimes rely too implicitly,— who has unaccountably placed his narrative of this affair under date of the year 1591. Mr. Strype places the time of these occurrences in the years 1584, 1585, and 1586;1 and demonstrates the precise time of Mr. Travers's suspension by a letter of his dated the twenty-seventh day of March, 1586, in which he complains of "his calling having been taken away from him."2 1 Strype's Whitgift, 173-176, 235. 2 Ibid., 250. CHAPTER III. BABINGTON'S CONSPIRACY. WALSINGHAM'S EXTENSIVE ESPIONAGE.-FACTIONS AMONG THE ROMANISTS. --- 1586. AMONG all her statesmen, Queen Elizabeth had no servant more devoted, vigilant, and laborious for her protection than her Secretary Walsingham. Well knowing the varied plans which her enemies had devised against her government and life from the very day of her accession to the throne; aware, too, that they had neither slackened their zeal nor bated aught of their machinations, and that all their movements were subtle and stealthy, from the outset of his administration he had maintained his disguised agents or spies wherever his sovereign had enemies, in the Catholic districts at home, about the person of the Queen of Scots, at the various seminaries of Missionary priests, and among the very "confidants of the Pope at Rome." This system of espionage was a matter of necessity; the only means of forestalling and counteracting the many secret plots against the Church and sovereign of England. To maintain it at home and abroad, the Secretary spared not time or labor or money. Nor did he scruple to employ any agent, however mercenary or however unprincipled, whom he could make his tool to subserve to the safety of the state. In this, under the circumstances, he was justifiable. It is also a singular and noticeable fact, that, while all Queen Elizabeth's perils had a Catholic origin, Walsingham's most effective spies were of the Catholic priesthood; so that "he used always to say, that an active but vicious priest was the best spy in the world."2 Perhaps we can account for this in part. But before proceeding to do so, we remark, parenthetically, that Queen Mary herself seems to have been of the same mind with Walsingham when she wrote, "Take heed of spies and false brethren among you, especially of some priests already practised upon by your enemies for your discovery." 3 1 Nares, III. 268. Ante, Vol. II. 44, note; 202. 2 Nares, III. 267, 268. VOL. III. 10 3 Hargrave's State Trials, 151; Mary's letter of instructions to Babington, July 12th, 1586. At this particular time, Walsingham probably had peculiar facilities for operating through this class of agents; for divisions and jealousies had sprung up among the Catholics themselves.1 The Jesuits, by their missionary operations and by their publication of politico-religious tracts, each of which measures had operated to the prejudice and discomfort of the Catholics in England,- had rendered themselves obnoxious to a large number of the Romish faith. Thus the English refugees particularly "had become split into factions."2 Many of these, who were scholars in the English College at Rome, had thrown off the tutelage of the Jesuits for that of the Dominicans. These dissensions among the English papists were still further increased by another fact. The Jesuits, despairing of the liberation of the Queen of Scots, despairing also of the conversion of her son to the Romish faith, of which until of late, they had had "assured hope," — had begun to put forward a pretended title of the King of Spain to the English Crown; to advance which they devoted themselves and exhorted their English pupils. On the other hand, their opponents, still hoping for Mary's liberation and for James's conversion, labored unremittingly in behalf of the captive queen. In their jealousy of the Jesuits, and in their attachment to the Queen of Scots, this party had the sympathy of the new Pope,- Sixtus Quintus,7 "who hated 4 Philip of Spain and admired the character of Elizabeth, although afterwards he excommunicated her afresh, in order, for form's sake, to appear to sanction Philip's attack upon the dominions of a heretic."1 Again, some of the English refugees, weary of their expatriation and suffering under poverty, were willing to lend themselves to the service of Queen Elizabeth, -or at least to entertain her offers of pardon and estate; and some of them priests had lately entered into secret correspondence with Walsingham himself.3 With these preliminary observations, we proceed to trace the details of another conspiracy; for, like all the Catholic movements (which we have noted heretofore) against the government and person of Elizabeth, it has its relations to the character and conduct of the Puritans. This we shall endeavor to illustrate hereafter. Among the soldiers of fortune who served in the Netherlands under the Prince of Parma, general of the forces of Philip of Spain, was one John Savage, an Englishman. Quitting the camp of the prince, he strolled into France; and about the first of August, 1585, came to the ancient city of Rheims, whither the English Seminary for missionary priests had been transferred from Douay ten years before. As he was reciting his military adventures and boasting of his exploits in conversation with Hodgeson, a priest, it chanced that he was overheard by William Gifford, a doctor of di |