Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/45

 I57I-] THE DUKE OF NORFOLK, 25 head of the conspiracy, was only one degree less dan- gerous than to pass it over unpunished. Norfolk was the chief offender. Norfolk was the intending husband of the Queen of Scots. Norfolk had given the commission to Ridolfi, and his crime was sur- rounded with every circumstance of ignominy and dis- honour. He, an English nobleman, had pledged his word to his Sovereign, deliberately meaning to break it. Calling himself a Catholic to the Pope, he had sued for a dispensation to conceal his creed the better to betray the Protestants who trusted him. For the fanatic who conceives that he has a duty to God which super- sedes his earthly allegiance, some kind of respect is not impossible but no plea of religion can take the stain out of treachery. Nor among Norfolk's many-sided protestations was it easy to distinguish truth from false- hood. He was a Catholic to the Pope and the King of Spain ; while he swore to Elizabeth and Burghley that he would be sooner torn with horses than forsake the faith in which he had been brought up. Which were his real convictions, or whether he possessed any real convictions, remains after all uncertain. With Arundel, Southampton, Lumley, and the Stanleys, both prudence and a natural disinclination to severity induced Eliza- beth to pause. Norfolk she determined to bring to crial. A commission was appointed to revise the evi- dence against him and draw up his indictment. The ex- posure of his falsehood would, it might be hoped, compel even the unwilling Peers for very shame to admit his guilt.