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1553.] allowed her to persuade herself that, in following her own inclination, she was consulting the interests of her subjects. Obstinate, at any rate, she was beyond all reach of persuasion. Once only she wavered, after her resolution was first taken. Some one had told her that, if she married Philip, she would find herself the stepmother of a large family of children who had come into the world irregularly. A moral objection she was always willing to recognize. She sent for Renard, and conjured him to tell her whether the prince was really the good man which he had described him; Renard assured her that he was the very paragon of the world.

She caught the ambassador's hand.

'Oh!' she exclaimed, 'do you speak as a subject whose duty is to praise his sovereign, or do you speak as a man?'

'Your Majesty may take my life,' he answered, 'if you find him other than I have told you.'

'Oh that I could but see him!' she said. She dismissed Renard gratefully. A few days after she sent for him again, when she was expecting the petition of the House of Commons. 'Lady Clarence,' one of the Queen's attendants, was the only other person present. The holy wafer was in the room on an altar, which she called her protector, her guide, her adviser. Mary told them that she spent her days and nights in tears and prayers before it, imploring God to direct her; and as she was speaking her emotions overcame her;