Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/266

246 for mighty changes easy of accomplishment. He saw in imagination the yet imperfect revolution carried out to completion, and himself as the achiever of the triumph remembered in the history of his country. He had lived in a reign in which the laws had been severe beyond precedent and when even speech was criminal. He was himself a believer in liberty; he imagined that the strong hand could now be dispensed with, that an age of enlightenment was at hand when severity could be superseded with gentleness and force by persuasion.

But, to accomplish these great purposes, he required a larger measure of authority. Before the King's body was cold, in the corridor outside the room where it was lying, he entreated Paget to assist him in altering the arrangements, and Paget, with some cautions and warnings, and stipulating only that Hertford should be guided in all things by his advice, consented.

It was now three o'clock in the morning of the 28th of January. The King had died at two, and after this hurried but momentous conversation, the Earl hastened off to bring up the Prince, who was in Hertfordshire with Elizabeth. In his haste he took with him the key of the will, for which Paget was obliged to send after