1584.] THE BOND OF ASSOCIATION. 51* her. 1 She bade Mauvissiere tell Burghley and Walsing- ham that she would do any thing and everything that they could ask. 2 She assured Somers, who was associated with Sadler in the charge of her, ' that she had never heard of any enterprise intended upon the realm for her relief, nor, as God should have her soul, would she ever consent to anything that should trouble the State, of which, with all her heart, she sought the quiet.' 3 In the midst of the negotiation, which on these assurances had been opened in good faith for her release, she wrote by a sure hand to Sir Francis Englefield in Spain bid- ding him tell the Pope and Philip that she expected nothing from the treaty ; but that hi any case she de- sired ' the execution of the great plot and designment to go forward without respect of peril or danger to her- self.' She said ' she would account her life happily be- stowed if by losing it she could help and relieve the oppressed children of the Church.' She required Englefield ' to pursue and procure at the Pope and the Catholic King's hand such a speedy performance of their purpose that it should be carried into effect at latest in the approaching spring, the condition of the cause not permitting any further delay.' 4 1 The Queen of Scots to Eliza- beth, October 1828 : LABANOFF, vol. vi. Sadler to Walsingliam, Octobers 13: MSS. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. z The Queen of Scots to Mauvis- siere, September 717: LABAXOFF, vol. vi. s Conversation between the Queen of Scots and Mr Somers, September, 1584: MSS, MARY QUEKN OF SCOTS. 4 The cipher of this letter full by some means into the bands of the Government, and is now among the MSS. in the Rolls House. It wa deciphered two years after in the presence of the council, by Curie,
