fusing to comply, the mayor sent workmen who changed

the locks.

De Quadra went to the palace to complain; but the Queen, without permitting herself to be seen, referred him to the council; and Cecil at last told him that he could not be allowed to remain at Durham Place. All the Papists in London attended mass there; every malcontent, every traitor and enemy of the Government, came there at night to consult him. The disturbance which had broken out in Ireland was due to the advice given by de Quadra when O'Neil was in London; and but for the care which the Queen had taken of him he would probably have long before been murdered by the mob.1

De Quadra was not a man to be discomposed by high words. He replied that whatever he had done he had done by his master's orders; and complaints against himself were complaints against the King of Spain. If he had seemed to act in an unfriendly manner, the times were to blame; if he did not profess the English religion, he professed the religion of Christendom; and those noble and honourable men who came to his house to mass came where they had a right to come and did not deserve Cecil's imputations

Hot words passed to and fro. Cecil charged the Bishop with maintaining traitors and rebels. De Quadra

1 De Quadra to Philip, January | dwelling only in fuller detail on the 10: MS. Simancas. The account midnight conferences of conspirators of the matter sent by the English and traitors held at Durham Place: council to Sir Thomas Chaloner, Spanish MSS., January 7: Rolls agrees closely with that of de Quadra, House.

said it was not he or his master who were most guilty of using religion as a stalking-horse to disturb their neighbours' peace.

Cecil said the Bishop had encouraged Pole and Fortescue. The Bishop answered truly enough that he had had nothing to do with them or their follies.

'The meaning of it all,' de Quadra wrote to Philip, 'is this: they wish to dishearten the Catholics whom the Parliament will bring together from all parts of the realm. I am not to remain in this house because it has secret doors and entrances which we may use for mischief. They are afraid, and they have cause to be afraid. The heretics are furious at seeing me maintain the Catholics here with some kind of authority, and they cannot endure it; but a few days ago the Lord Keeper said that neither the Crown nor religion were safe so long as I was in the realm. It is true enough, as Cecil says, that I may any day be torn in pieces by the populace. Ever since this war in France, and the demonstrations in Paris against the heretics, the Protestant preachers have clamoured from the pulpit for the execution of 'Papists.' Even Cecil himself is bent on cruelty; and did they but dare they would not leave a Catholic alive in the land.

'But the faithful are too large a number, and if it comes to that they will sell their lives dear. London indeed is bad enough: it is the worst place in the realm and it is likely-I do not say it in it in any fear, but only because it is a thing which your Majesty should know that if they force me to reside within the walls

The council

of the city something may happen to me. themselves tell me that if I am detected in any conspiracy my privilege as ambassador shall not save me. They wish to goad me on to violence that they may have matter to lay before the Queen against me.'1

Believing or pretending to believe that de Quadra, notwithstanding his denial, was really implicated in the affair of the Poles, Cecil overshot his mark. Chaloner

was instructed to demand the Bishop's recall; and meanwhile he was allowed still to reside in Durham Place, but with restrictions upon his liberty. The water gate was closed, sentinels were posted at the lodge, the house was watched day and night, and every person who went in or out was examined and registered.2

While this fracas was at its heat, on the 12th of January Parliament opened, and with it the first Convocation of the English Church. The sermon at St Paul's was preached by Day, the Provost of Eton; that at Westminster by Dr Nowell. The subject of both was the same: the propriety of killing the caged wolves'— that is to say, the Catholic bishops in the Tower—with

the least possible delay.3

The session then began. The Lord Keeper in the

1 De Quadra to Philip, January | mente persuadir que se matasen los 10: MS. Simancas. lobos encerrados; entendiendo por

2 De Quadra to Philip, January los obispos presos.'-De Quadra to 27: MS. Ibid,

3 El Martes se abrió el Parlamento, y lo que se predicó tanto en Westminster en presencia de la Reyna como en San Pablo en el sinodo ecclesiastico fué principal

-, January 14: MS. Ibid. It is mournful to remember that Nowell was the author of the English Church Catechism in its present form. See note at the end of this chapter.

usual speech from the throne dwelt on the internal disorders of the country, the irreligion of the laity, the disorder and idleness of the clergy. He touched briefly on the events of the three last years; and in speaking by name of the House of Guise, he said that if they had not been encountered in Scotland they must have been fought with under the walls of York.

Then passing to France, he said that the Queen by the same cause had been compelled to a second similar interference there. He alluded pointedly to a disloyal faction in England, by whom the foreign enemies were encouraged. He spoke shortly of the late devilish conspiracy, and then concluded with saying that reluctant as they knew the Queen to be to ask her subjects for money, they would be called upon to meet the expenses which she had incurred in the service of the Commonwealth.

Sir Thomas Williams, the Speaker of the Lower House, followed next in the very noblest spirit of English Puritanism. With quaint allegoric and classical allusions interlaced with illustrations from the Bible, he conveyed to the Queen the gratitude of the people for a restored religion and her own moderate and gentle Government. He described the country however as still suffering from ignorance, error, covetousness, and a thousand meaner vices. Schools were in decay, universities deserted, benefices unsupplied. As he passed through the streets, he heard almost as many oaths as words. Then turning to the Queen herself he went on thus

'We now assembled, as diligent in our calling, have thought good to move your Majesty to build a fort for the surety of the realm, to the repulsing of your enemies abroad: which must be set upon firm ground and steadfast, having two gates-one commonly open, the other as a postern, with two watchmen at either of them-one governor, one lieutenant, and no good thing there wanting; the same to be named the Fear of God, the governor thereof to be God, your Majesty the lieutenant, the stones the hearts of your faithful people, the two watchmen at the open gate to be called Knowledge and Virtue, the two at the postern gate to be called Mercy and Truth.

This fort is invincible if every man will fear God; for all governors reign and govern by the two watchmen Knowledge and Virtue; and if you, being the lieutenant, see Justice and Prudence, her sisters, executed, then shall you rightly use your office; and for such as depart out of this fort let them be let out at the postern by the two watchmen Mercy and Truth, and then shall you be well at home and abroad.”1

All that was most excellent in English heart and feeling the spirit which carried England safe at last through its trials-spoke in these words. Those in whom that spirit lived were few in number: there was never an age in this world's history when they were other than few; but few or many they are at all times the world's true sovereign leaders; and Elizabeth,

1 Speech of Sir Thomas Williams: DEWES' Journals, pp. 64, 65.