Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/476

456 the ruling principle of Henry's conduct; but it was justice without mercy. Ever ready to welcome evidence of innocence, he forgave guilt only among the poor and the uneducated; and for State offences there was but one punishment. A disposition naturally severe had been stiffened by the trials of the last years into harsher rigidity; and familiarity with executions, as with deaths in action, diminishes alike the pain of witnessing and of inflicting them. Loyalty was honoured and rewarded; the traitor, though his crime was consecrated by the most devoted sense of duty; was dismissed without a pang of compunction to carry his appeal before another tribunal.