Thomas Graves Law

“ Bruce, still in appearance acting on behalf of his old friends, arrived once more in Scotland with money from Flanders, and on 8 Dec, to the surprise of Bowes, James passed an act of council granting 'remission' to Robert Bruce 'for high treason, negotiation with foreign princes and Jesuits for the alteration of religion,' &c. It is evident that Bruce was in earnest in his new character. ”

“ Elizabeth sent the packet to James, and the whole conspiracy was exposed, to the consternation of the country. The king was stirred up to some feeble measures against the lords, and thereupon Bruce incited Huntly to the open insurrection which ended in the fiasco of the Brig of Dee. Bruce, whose name had already appeared in a decree of banishment pronounced against certain Jesuits and others, now remained comparatively quiet for some years. ”

“ On this understanding he was sent, at his own request, into Scotland. For the next ten years this clever adventurer contrived, without serious difficulty, to combine the characters of a zealous missionary priest, a political agent of the Scottish catholic earls in rebellion against their king, and a spy in the employment of Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil. In Scotland he resided generally with Lord Seton, and acted as confessor or spiritual director of Barclay of Ladyland. When George Kerr was captured, on his starting for Spain with the 'Spanish Blanks,' 31 Dec. ”

“ For eighteen months (1587-8) he acted as Latin secretary to Cardinal Allen, and afterwards spent two years in Spain, and was with Father Parsons at his newly erected seminary at Valladolid. Early in 1591 Parsons sent Cecil, with another priest, Fixer, alias Wilson, into England, via Amsterdam; but the vessel in which they sailed was captured by her Majesty's ship Hope in the Channel, and the two priests were carried to London. Here they at once came to terms with Lord Burghley. Cecil had already in 1588 corresponded, under the name of Juan de Campo, with Sir Francis Walsingham. ”

“ The letters were filled up in Paris at the duke's dictation, and carried to Philip of Spain, to whom they were addressed, by Bruce, who was commended to the king as ‘a nobleman of proved trust and a good catholic.’ The catholic lords asked for their purpose from Philip six thousand troops and 150,000 crowns. Bruce's departure to Spain on this mission was hastened, so Mendoza reported, by orders for his arrest in France, on account of some strong declarations made by him in favour of the jesuits. ”

“ His heir brought the unpublished book to the French nuncio, and asked 460 ducats for it, adding that the Huguenots had offered a thousand ducats (Vatican MSS.; Nunziatura di Francia. vol. ccxc. f. 146) , The nuncio referred the matter to the pope, and the pope to the general of the society, who declined the offer with the remark that such writings were numerous, and that if he were to buy them all up he would be ruined. ”