Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/185

1553.] answer, 'he came into the council chamber, being in great rage and fury, trembling for anger; and amongst, his outrageous talk he called Sir Edward Montague traitor, and said that he would fight in his shirt with any man in the quarrel.' He was so savage, that the judges thought he would strike them, if they remained in the room. They escaped in haste; but the next day they were again sent for. They were introduced in the midst of dead silence. 'The Lords looked on them with earnest countenance, as though they had not known them.' Not a word was spoken till they were called to the King's bed-side.

Edward, dying as he was, 'with sharp words and angry countenance, asked where were the letters patent? Why had they not been drawn?' Montague said that they would be useless without an Act of Parliament, and when Edward answered that he would call a Parliament, the Chief Justice begged that the question might be deferred till the meeting. But Edward would not hear of delay. The ratification might follow; for the present, he chose to be obeyed. A voice at Montague's back exclaimed, if the judges still refused, they were traitors. No lips were opened to support them; partly, perhaps, because the King's death-bed was not a fit place for an altercation; partly because opposition at that time might have led to instant bloodshed.