Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/283

1553.] and he carried letters from Mary to the Pope with assurances of fidelity, and entreaties for the absolution of the kingdom. But Mary was obliged to say, notwithstanding, that for the present she was in the power of the people, of whom the majority mortally detested the Holy See; that the Lords of the Council were in possession of vast estates which had been alienated from the Church, and they feared their titles might be called in question; and, although she agreed herself in all which Pole had urged (she had received his letter before Commendone left England), yet that, nevertheless, necessity acknowledged no law. Her heretical sister was in every one's mouth, and might at any moment take her place on the throne, and for the present, she said, to her deep regret, she could not, with prudence or safety, allow the legate to come to her.

The Queen's letters were confirmed by Commendone himself; he had been permitted to confer in private with more than one good Catholic in the realm; and every one had given him the same assurances, although he had urged upon them the opposite opinion entertained by Pole: he had himself witnessed the disposition with which the people regarded Elizabeth, and he was