514 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56. william were dying in a Spanish dungeon, and that a letter from the Queen of Scots might induce Philip to let them go. Fitzwilliam was then admitted to a private audience. He delivered the letters from the Ferias, and the Queen of Scots, little dreaming that she was being made the instrument of a plot by which her own hopes were to be destroyed, said good-naturedly 'that she must pity prisoners, for she was used as one herself, and that she would do any pleasure she could to relieve an Englishman.' l Suspecting no treachery in a friend of the Duchess of Feria, Mary Stuart talked with much unreserve to Fitzwilliam. Fitzwilliam told her about Hawkins and his offer to the King of Spain, and she, on her part, wrote to Philip at once in his favour. Don Guerau was delighted at so important an acquisition to the Catholic cause, and told the King that he might expect service from Hawkins of infinite value, 2 while Hawkins sent the Queen of Scots' letters to Cecil to be examined, with a list of the presents which in her innocence she had trusted to the false hands of Fitzwilliam for her Spanish friends, 3 and inquired whether it was Eliza- beth's pleasure that he should pursue the game further. 1 Shrewsbury to Cecil, June 3 : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS. 2 Don Guerau to Philip, June 15 MSS. Simcmcas. 3 ' Fitzwilliam is returned and hath letters from the Queen of Scots to the King of Spain, which are en- closed with others in a parcel direct- ed to your Lordship. He hath also a book sent from her to the Duchess of Feria with the old service in Latin ; and in the end hath written this word with her own hand : ' ' Absit ' nobis gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi. ' ' MARIA E.' ' Hawkins to Burghley, June 7: MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.
