Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/29

 1 5 7 1 .] THE D UKE OF NORFOLK. 9 guilty. But the change is less due to moral improve- ment than to the conditions of our present life ; and if we shudder at the cruelty which wrenched confessions out of strained limbs and quivering muscles, it is no less true that Elizabeth's government would have come to a swift end if her ministers had been embarrassed with modern scruples. Banister was sent for from Shrewsbury and racked. Barker yielded to terror and told all that he knew. By his directions the key was found between two tiles on the roof of Howard House which unlocked the letter of the Queen of Scots Each victim when he tried to equivocate was confronted with the acknowledgments of his companions, or left with papers of questions so worded as to exhibit most strongly the hopelessness of further concealment. The Duke, who was abject from the first, redeemed his in- famy in some slight degree by endeavouring to shield Mary Stuart. He poured out streams of unmeaning eloquence to Elizabeth and Burghley, for ever assever- ating his innocence, enlarging the circle of his admis- sions only when forced by the confessions of his secretaries, and then wildly charging them with having sold his blood and with endeavouring to buy their own pardon at the expense of his life. The Catholic nobles lay still, paralyzed by the sudden energy of the Court, doubting the effect on Alva of the Duke's im- prisonment, and lacking courage to risk their lives by rising alone in his defence. The courtiers, the crew of traitors whom Elizabeth persisted in keeping about her person, dared not openly speak for him, but worked