at Eltham, and all that it would involve. "Would to God"—he broke out impatiently, and did not finish the sentence; but Chapuys thought he saw what the finish would have been.[1] Henry may be credited with some forbearance towards his troublesome daughter. She defied his laws. Her supporters were trying to take his crown from him, and she herself was attempting to escape abroad and levy war upon him. Few of his predecessors would have hesitated to take ruder methods with so unmalleable a piece of metal. She herself believed that escape was her only chance of life. She was in the power of persons who, she had been told, meant to poison her, while no means were neglected to exasperate the King's mind against her. He, on his side, was told that she was incurably obstinate, while everything was concealed that might make him more favourably disposed towards her. In the midst of public business with which he was overwhelmed, he could not know what was passing inside the walls at Eltham. He discovered occasionally that he had been deceived. He complained to Cromwell "that he had found much good in his daughter of which he had not been properly informed." But if there was a conspiracy against Mary, there was also a conspiracy against himself, in a quarter where it could have been least expected.
Dr. Butts, the King's physician, whose portrait by Holbein is so familiar to us, was one of the most devoted friends of Queen Catherine. During Mary's illness. Dr. Butts had affected to be afraid of the responsibility of attending upon her. He had consented afterwards, though with apparent reluctance, and had met in consultation Catherine's doctor, who had also
- ↑ Chapuys to Charles V., April 17, 1535.—Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. viii. p. 209.
