Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/65

 1572] THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 45 He said the Bishop was a false Scot, and cared not how many innocent Englishmen he might bring to destruc- tion. He was reminded of his promise to deal no more with the Queen of Scots. He could not deny that promise, and he could not deny that he had broken it. It was proved also that after leaving the Court in Hampshire he had listened to a proposal to seize the Tower, and had gone down to Norfolk with a half- formed intention of rebellion. 1 One witness only was produced in court, Lord Shrewsbury's stepson, Richard Cavendish, Leicester's agent with the Queen of Scots, who finding that times were changing turned round upon his friends and swore that the Duke had told him beforehand of the in- tended rising in the North. To this the Duke answered that Cavendish was a lying slave ; but the conviction was left upon the court, and as the reader knows with entire justice, that he was aware of the Earls' purpose and at least had not re- vealed it. Bidolfi's commission came next. To those who have 1 Among other fr agments of evi- dence which came out upon the trial, it appeared that the Duke had been playing with ' a blind prophecy,' something like Owen Glendower's clipwinged dragon and finless fish.' The words are : ' In exaltatione Lunoe Leo suc- cumbet, et Leo cum Leone coujunge- tur et catuli eoruni regnabunt.' The Duke had interpreted them thus : ' At the exaltation of the moon, which was the rising of the Earl of Northumberland, ' the Lion,' the Queen's Majesty, shall be over- thrown. Then shall the Lion be joined with the Lion i.e. the Duke of Norfolk with the Queen of Scot- land, for they both bore lions in their arms, and their whelps shall reign.' Trial of the Duke of Nor- folk : State Trials, vol. i.