350 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH 60. The English Government had more than once shown the refugees that to escape from England was not neces- sarily to escape altogether. Story had been kidnapped and hanged, the Earl of Northumberland had been bought from the Scots and beheaded. The lesson had produced some effect, but it needed to be repeated. Lord Westmoreland had applied for pardon, and had almost obtained it, when he fell back under the in- fluence of the Countess of Northumberland, and was again ' practising' against the Queen. He had been attainted, and his life was forfeited. Cecil employed Woodshawe to entrap him, take him prisoner, and bring him to London. The ingenious scoundrel wound him- self into the Earl's favour, sending report of his pro- gress as he went along. When the Earl, with the other exiles, was ordered finally out of Flanders, Woodshawe advised him to go to Liege, and laid an ambuscade for him on the way, intending, ' by God's grace to carry him dead or alive to England/ 1 Fortunately for Burghley's reputation, the plot failed. Woodshawe disappears from history, and the Lord Treasurer had to submit to the humiliation of receiving advice from Leicester to have no further transactions with persons of abandoned character. 2 He could have defended himself on the ground that West- moreland, being an attainted traitor, had no rights left him, in law or honour ; but Philip, on the same plea, 1 Woodshawe to Burghley, Feb- ruary 27 and March 13, 1575 : MSS. Flanders, 2 Leicester to Burghley, March, 1575 : MSS. HatfieU.
