A treaty of peace
between the Catholic King and an excommunicated princess would end the
dream of a Catholic revolution in England. If the English peers and
gentry saw the censures of the Church set aside so lightly by the most
orthodox prince in Europe, Parsons and his friends would preach in vain
to them the obligation of rebellion. If this deadly negotiation was to
be broken off, a blow must be struck, and struck at once. There was not
a moment to be lost.
The enchanted prisoner at Tutbury was the sleeping and waking dream of
Catholic chivalry. The brave knight who would slay the dragon, deliver
Mary Stuart, and place her on the usurper's throne, would outdo Orlando
or St. George, and be sung of for ever as the noblest hero who had ever
wielded brand or spear. Many a young British heart had thrilled with
hope that for him the enterprise was reserved. One of these was a
certain Anthony Babington, a gentleman of some fortune in Derbyshire. A
seminary priest named Ballard, excited, like the rest, by the need of
action, and anxious to prevent the peace, fell in with this Babington,
and thought he had found the man for his work. Elizabeth dead and Mary
Stuart free, there would be no more talk of peace.
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