 He was sent back to London for trial, but escaped by feigning insanity when his guards were suffering from a hangover.In 1586, Holford again narrowly escaped capture at the Bellamy house when Sir Francis Walsingham raided London Catholic houses following an unsuccessful Catholic plot to replace Elizabeth I with Mary, Queen of Scots.Holford, using the alias "Acton", then stayed away from London for some time but returned in 1588 to buy clothes.