Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/502

482 he valued his duty to God and the country, to keep the King at Windsor, or he should answer for it at his uttermost peril. They had themselves stated to his Majesty the conditions to which the Protector must submit. There was no reason to fear that there would be any cruelty or needless severity. 'They minded to do none otherwise than they would be done unto, and that with as much moderation and favour as they honourably might.' Finally, they desired every one at Windsor to attend to the message which would be delivered by Sir Philip Hoby, Mr Tytler, who, in his tenderness for Somerset, represents him as the victim of an unprincipled intrigue, and scatters freely such epithets over his story as 'base,' 'villanous,' and 'treacherous,' says that Hoby had brought a secret message to Paget and Cranmer, which was 'none other than they must either forsake the Duke, lend themselves to the deceit about to be practised on him, and concur in measures for securing his person, or continue true to him and share his fate.' The unconditional submission which the council required, he considers was basely kept a secret; the object was to put the Protector oft' his guard, and then take him prisoner. Considering that, in the existing circumstances, setting aside the interests of the State, the truest kindness to Somerset was to prevent him from attempting the wild plans which he was meditating, there would have been nothing to deserve the epithets of false and treacherous, had the council sent such instructions, and had Paget and Cranmer acted on them. But the eagerness of Mr Tytler's sympathies has misled him. The message was delivered in open audience, and was addressed to Somerset as much as to them. 'The unconditional submission' was required in the letter to the King, and this letter was, by the especial order of the council, presented to the King in open Court, and read aloud. 'Sir Philip Hoby,' wrote Cranmer, Paget, and Sir Thomas Smith, on the 10th of October, to the council, 'hath, according to the charge given him by your lordships, presented your letter to the King's Majesty, in the presence of us and all the rest of his Majesty's good servants here, which was then read openly.' Sir Thomas Smith was Somerset's friend.Had the Duke been put to death after the promise of kind treatment, there would have been ground for and