Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/399

1548.] The Admiral agreed to support Sharington before the council if Sharington were called to answer for his frauds. Sharington would coin money for the Admiral to any extent which the latter might require.

Knowing something of these doings, and suspecting more, the Protector from time to time remonstrated, but in language in which the supreme magistrate was lost in the brother; while the Admiral considered the lightest admonition as a fresh provocation, and thought only of supplanting him.

In the midst of his schemes Queen Catherine was confined of a daughter, and a few days after August, died. The Admiral's conduct immediately caused a belief that 'he had holpen her to her end;' and had Queen Catherine been in any way an obstacle to his ambition, he would no doubt have rid himself of her with entire unscrupulousness. Men do not murder their wives gratuitously, however; her husband was losing a splendid connection, with no security that he would exchange it for a better; and his friends, and he himself, if his word could be trusted, held his position to be weakened by his loss. Catherine, probably, died from her confinement, but Seymour lost no time in attempting to improve his misfortune. Elizabeth had been removed from his house; she was now living at