[1] Having the mastery of several European languages he was, after Mary's imprisonment in England, employed in carrying out foreign plots on her behalf.
[4] In the spring of 1571, as Baillie was leaving Flanders with copies of a book by John Lesley in defence of Queen Mary, newly printed at the Liège press,[5] Ridolfi entrusted him with letters in cipher for Lesley and Mary, and also for the Spanish ambassador Guerau de Espés, the Duke of Norfolk, and Lord Lumley.
The letters outlined a plan for a Spanish landing on Mary's behalf in the eastern counties of England, sometimes known as the "enterprise".
[6] Herle described Baillie as "fearful, full of words, glorious, and given to the cup, a man easily read".
Baillie was conveyed from the Marshalsea to the Tower of London, where he refused to decipher his letters, and was put on the rack.
Wise men ought to se what they do, to examine before they speake; to prove before they take in hand; to beware whose company they use; and, above all things, to whom they truste.
Baillie also revealed the story of the abstracted packet of letters, and sought to persuade Cecil to grant him his liberty by offering to act as a double-agent and watch the correspondence of John Lesley.