Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/28

 8 RF.TGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 57 Cowardice was not a common fault in an English nobleman : the first Peer in the land, the head of the proud House of Howard, and the aspirant for the hand of England's expectant Queen, fell upon his knees when the warrant was brought to him and cried for mercy like a poltroon. Mounted ' on a footcloth nag ' between Sadler and Sir Thomas Smith, and attended only by their own servants, he was led through the streets to the Tower gates amidst a crowd of women and idle boys and girls, and he was locked into a room with a set of questions to read and think over and prepare for a third examination in the morning. 1 His first step was to compromise himself still more fatally. He wrote a note to some one at Howard House desir- ing that all his ciphers might be collected and burnt. He gave it to an attendant at the Tower whom he believed that he had bribed. The attendant carried it to the Lieutenant, by whom it was passed on to Burghley. 2 From this moment discovery succeeded discovery with breathless rapidity. The method of inquiry, how- ever inconsonant with modern conceptions of justice, was adapted excellently for the outrooting of the truth. In quiet times the prisoner is more considered than the State. The commonwealth is in no danger though isolated crimes be undiscovered or unpunished, and the possible suffering of one innocent person is held to be a greater evil than the occasional escape of the 1 Sadler, Smith, and Wilson to I 2 Avisos de Londres, September; Burghiey, September 7 : MURDIN. I MSS. Simancas.