“I am no assassin,” replied Osbert. “Deeply as I hate him, I would not slay him save in fair fight. No, we must rouse our countrymen to a sense of their danger, and rise in arms against him, and put him justly to death, or drive him from the country.”
“His design is to subjugate England, and reduce us to the condition of Flanders and Burgundy,” cried Stafford. “If he is allowed to remain on the throne for another year, he will become absolute master of our liberties. The twelve strongest fortresses in England—the Tower itself included—are to be delivered up to him by the misguided and unworthy Queen, and garrisoned by twenty thousand Spaniards.”
“I can scarce think the Queen would be thus false to her country,” said Osbert.
“It is so, Sir, and I will tell you more,” pursued Stafford. “Alva is to be governor of the Tower, and ere he has been there many months more noble English blood will drench the scaffold than ever dyed it in King Harry’s days. The Inquisition, also, is to be established.”
“It is already established among us,” cried Sir Henry Dudley. “We had our auto-da-fé in Smithfield yesterday.”
“The Queen is so infatuated by her love for the King,” pursued Stafford, “that she can deny him nothing. You, Sir,” he added to Osbert, “who have been in attendance upon him, must know how shamefully he abuses her regard, and the scandalous infidelities he practises.”
“It is true,” replied Osbert. “It is true, also, that her Majesty can refuse him nothing. He has incited her to settle her crown upon him by her will in the event of her decease during her time of travail.”
“Can she be so blind as not to perceive that by making such a will she ensures her own death by poison?” observed De Noailles. “But her senseless passion deprives her of all judgment.”
“Now is the time to strike,” cried Stafford. “Men’s minds are so excited that a single spark will set the whole city of London in a flame. All the Protestants are ripe for outbreak. Let us raise the standard of revolt in Smithfield, on the very spot where Rogers was martyred, proclaim the Princess Elizabeth Queen, the deposition of Philip and Mary, and restoration of the Reformed religion. We can only number a handful of men at first, but what matters that? Thousands will soon rally round us, and ere night we shall be masters of the City.”
“The enterprise is desperate,” said Osbert, “but the moment is propitious. I am with you.”