Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/474

454 was signalized by the arrest, on a charge of treason, of Sir John Wallop and Sir Thomas Wyatt. The accuser of Wyatt was Bonner, now Bishop of London; his supposed offences were slanderous expressions used against the King at Nice, and a correspondence at the same place with Pole. Wallop had been informed against by a friend of the Duke of Norfolk, Richard Pate, the present English minister in Flanders—a disguised Romanist, who soon after showed his true colours.

An instance of unrelenting severity on the part of the King will be presently related: if he was inflexible where guilt had been ascertained, he was cautious, and even considerate, where there was only suspicion. Wallop, who had been superseded as ambassador at Paris in favour of Lord William Howard, was designed for the honourable and dangerous office of commandant at Guisnes. He was still in France; and the King wrote to Howard telling him that certain charges had been laid before him against his predecessor, and the second appointment must therefore, for a time at least, be suspended. 'Nevertheless, considering his long services done unto us,' Henry continued, 'and the place and office which he hath lately occupied for us, we have resolved, that before he shall be committed to any ward or prison, or that any such publication of his accusations shall be made as shall redound to his infamy and slander, he shall be familiarly conveyed by Sir Richard Long to our house in Southwark, and there secretly examined, to the intent he may know what is objected against him, and make such answer as he can: and if he can