He  will  inform  you  of  the  means  for  getting  me  away  from  here,
which  I  will  attempt  to  efifect  on  my  own  account  if  I  am
previously  assured  of  armed  aid.  Thank  God  ray  health  is  at
present  better  than  it  has  been  for  the  last  three  months.  I  thank
you  most  affectionately  for  your  good  offices  with  the  King  in  the
matter  of  the  12,000  crowns  which  he  was  good  enough  to  grant
me  for  my  deliverance,  in  which  the  money  shall  be  employed,  and
for  no  other  purpose,  and  I  am  only  sorry  that  the  other  12,000
for  Scotland  produced  so  little  result.  I  had  received  advices  from
London  that  Serior  Tassis  had  been  authorised  in  this  matter,  but
except  upon  very  urgent  need  I  am  unwilling  to  importune  in  things
of  this  sort,  and  I  am  therefore  all  the  more  grateful  to  you  for  your
care  about  it,  and  recognise  that  to  you  principally  I  owe  the
granting  of  this  sum  to  me.  Please  help  me  to  express  to  the  King
my  deep  sense  of  the  obligation  I  am  under  to  him  for  it,  and  the
good-will  I  feel  to  try  and  repay  it,  if  I  ever  have  the  means  ;  and  I
hope  not  to  prove  ungrateful  to  you  personally.  I  have  instructed
my  ambassador  to  receive  the  gentleman  to  be  sent  by  the  nobles.
— Chartley,  27th  July  1586.*

Aug.       460.    Robert  Bruce  to  Philip  II.
^Stench '^'  ^°  *^®  ^^^^  '^^ *^®  nobles  by  whom  he  is  sent  (Huntley,  Morton,
and  Claude  Hamilton)  urges  upon  the  King  the  ease  and  desirability
of  bringing  Scotland  to  the  Catholic  faith.  He  begs  the  King's  aid
thereto,  in  the  form  of  men  and  money. — Madrid.    No  date.
