300 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. might lead to an immediate explosion. He had given his word to the Queen of England that Lennox should go to France, and he must keep his promise. But to go to France need not mean to remain there, and in six months at latest he might be again at Edinburgh. ' I asked the secretary if the Duke meant while he was in Paris to attend the Protestant services. He said that he did, and the Duke had particularly charged him to tell me so, that his Holiness and your Majesty and the Queen of Scots might be under no false impression about him. He was forced to dissemble that obstacles .might not be raised to his return. If he avowed him- self the Catholic which he really was, the King could not conveniently recall him, and the Queen of England would certainty interfere. He wished me to be satisfied that nothing should prevent him from taking arms in the great cause, when a Catholic army was once landed in Scotland. The King he undertook should then be reconciled to the Church. He would make him under- stand that his prospects in England depended on his compliance, and on the help of the Catholic powers. ' The secretary assured me further of the great affec- tion which the King felt for Lennox. I was aware of it already, and it appears plainly in two notes which the King wrote to him before his departure. He gave me a letter further from his master to the Queen of Scots, referring her to me for further information about him, with which he begged me to furnish her. ' I replied with generalities. It appeared to me that in desiring the recovery of these realms to the Church,
