the streets to Westminster. The Queen, when she arrived at Whitehall, refused to see her; a suite of rooms was assigned for her confinement in a corner of the palace, from which there was no egress except by passing the guard, and there, with short attendance, she waited the result of Gardiner's investigations. Wyatt, by vague admissions, had already partially compromised her, and, on the strength of his words, and the discovery of the copy of her letter in the packet of Noailles, she would have gone direct to the Tower, had the Lords permitted. The Emperor urged instant and summary justice both on her and on Courtenay; the irritation, should irritation arise, could be allayed afterwards by an amnesty.[1] The Lords, however, insisted obstinately on the forms of law, the necessity of witnesses and of a trial; and Renard watched their unreasonable humours with angry misgivings. It was enough, he said, that the conspiracy was undertaken in Elizabeth's interests; if she escaped now, the Queen would never be secure.[2] In fact, while Elizabeth lived, the Prince could not venture among the wild English spirits, and Charles was determined that the marriage should not escape him.
- ↑ Renard was instructed to exhort the Queen: 'Que l'execution et chastoy de ceulx qui le meritent se face tost; usant á l'endroit de Madame Elizabeth et de Cortenay comme elle verra convenir á sa seureté, pour aprés user de clémence en l'endroit de ceulx qu'il luy semblera, afin de tost reassurer le surplus.'—Charles V. to Renard: Granvelle Papers, vol. iv. pp. 224, 225.
- ↑ Il est certain l'enterprinse estoit en sa faveur. Et certes, sire, si pendant que l'occasion s'adonne elle ne la punyt et Cortenay, elle ne sera jamais asseurée.—Renard to Charles V.: Tytler, vol. ii. p. 311.
