Having raised 1,400 troops – most of them Irish – Stanley set out for the continent. En route he stayed at London, where it was reported that he had been in the confidence of Jesuits and privy to part of the Babington Plot, and that he had corresponded with the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, and with the Tower-bound Earl of Arundel. When ordered to carry on to the Netherlands, he tarried in England, supposedly in the expectation of an attempt on Elizabeth's life or the arrival of a Spanish fleet. Eventually he was obliged to sail, but anticipated joining with the Duke of Parma.