Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/26

6 handled among you, her servants plucked from her; and she still cried upon to leave mass, to forsake her religion in which her mother, her grandmother, and all our family have lived and died.'

'Sacred Majesty,' Wotton answered, 'at my coming out of England she was honourably entertained in her own house, and had such about her as she liked: and I think she is so still. I do not hear to the contrary.'

'Yes, by St Mary,' said Charles, 'there is to the contrary, and therefore say you hardly to them, I will not suffer her to be evil handled by them—I will not suffer it. Is it not enough that my aunt, her mother, was evil entreated by the King that dead is, but my cousin must be worse ordered by councillors now. I had rather she died a thousand deaths than that she should forsake her faith. The King is too young to skill of such matters.'

When Wotton urged that Mary was a subject, and must submit to the law, Charles gave the usual answer that a law made in a minority was no law at all. The Church had been ruined, the bishoprics plundered, the religion of Christ set aside or altered by the violent will of a few men who had no authority to meddle with such things. Wotton said the changes had been discussed in Parliament: the Emperor replied that Parliament was no place for the discussion of any such questions.

Seeing his humour, Wotton passed unwillingly to the second part of his instructions, and required the license for Sir Thomas Chamberlain to use the communion service at Brussels. The Emperor said distinctly