Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/169

1553.] had served with, honour in the wars of Francis I. He was present at the defeat of the Emperor in Provence in 1536. Succeeding d'Annebault, as admiral of the French fleet, it was he who despatched Villegaignon to Scotland with the ships which brought Mary Stuart into France; and he was governor of Bordeaux at the time when he was chosen by the King for the delicate mission to England. Noailles reached London in the middle of May. Renard not till six weeks later. From the despatches of these two, and before their arrival, from those of Scheyfne and Boisdaulphin, the ambassadors in ordinary, is to be gathered so much as can be ascertained of the secret history of the attempt of Northumberland to alter the succession to the Crown.

No sooner was Edward known to have been removed to Greenwich in consequence of illness, than his death was instinctively anticipated. Only once, after his arrival there, he was seen in the garden; after that he was confined entirely to his room. By the end of April he was spitting blood, his disorder presenting the same symptoms which had preceded the death of his brother the Duke of Richmond, and the country was felt to be on the eve of a new reign. Vast as, at such a prospect, the excitement must have been, the accession of Mary, should the King die, was looked forward to as a matter of course. The long agitation of the subject, the anxieties and the scandals which the uncertainty had occasioned in the last reign, and the deliberate settlement of the Crown by Act of Parliament as well as by her father's will, in Mary's favour, had familiarized the