Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/586

566 returned to the house in Essex, from which her removal had been made the pretext of agitation.

The council took no further steps for the next two days. On the 19th the 'Emperor's ambassador' 'came with a short message from his master of war'—the liberty which he demanded for the Princess Mary or war—and Cecil's expectation seemed to be on the edge of fulfilment.

'The Earl of Warwick,' Sir Richard Morryson writes, in describing his conduct on this occasion, 'had such a head, that he seldom went about anything but he conceived first three or four purposes beforehand.' Warwick was meditating an alliance with France, could it be effected. But it might not be effected, and Edward's health was precarious, and he was unwilling therefore to come to an open breach with the Emperor, or to make an irreconcilable enemy of Mary. At the same time he had cast in his lot with the extreme Protestants, to whom Edward was more and more attaching himself. He must therefore keep friends with all, 'that he might, as time should teach him, allow whether of them he listed, and fall in with him that might best serve his practices.'

On the delivery of the Emperor's message, when the councillors were looking in one another's faces, he suggested they were inadequate judges in a case of conscience, and they should consult the bishops. Cranmer,