"Would she be apt and willing?"
"She is idle, clever, and serious—but, my dear lord, a Romanist."
The Earl laughed at his wife, who laughed back.
"Very well," he said. "I think she will be a proper person for this matter."
He put the long tips of his fingers together and reflected; he loved, of all things, oblique and crooked methods of working his difficult and secret intrigues.
When he spoke it was with clearness and decision.
"Tell this lady (what she must know already) that the King's measures in England have forced many malcontents to look abroad to the Princess Royal, the next heir, and her husband to deliver them from an odious rule; say that His Majesty, however, is confident that his daughter would never forget her obedience, and that, if it came to a crisis between her father and her husband, she would hinder the latter from any design on England and refuse her sanction to any attempt on his part to disturb His Majesty—say this requireth confirmation, and that for the ease and peace of the government (alarmed by the late refusal of Her Highness to concur in the Declaration of Indulgence) and the reassurance of the mind of the King, it would be well that we should have private knowledge of the disposition of Her Highness, which, you must say, you trust will be for the advantage of the King and his just measures."
The Countess listened attentively; she was seated now close to her husband, a pretty-looking figure in white and lavender, half concealed in the purple satin cushions of the large chair.
"I will write by the next packet," she answered simply.
"So," smiled the Earl, "we will use the zeal of a Romanist to discover the knowledge we need for Protestant ends——"