Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/396

376 all in play (for evidently they chose their sides by their sympathies), they joined battle, and fought with the fierceness of grown men. The combat ended in the capture of the representative of Philip, who was dragged to a gallows, and would have been hanged upon it, had not the spectators interfered. The boys were laid hands upon. The youngest were whipped, the elder imprisoned. It was said that the Queen thought of gibbeting one of these innocents in real fact, for an example; or, as Noailles put it, as an expiation for the sins of the people.

Over Elizabeth, in the mean time, the fatal net appeared to be closing ; Lord Russell had received a letter for her from Wyatt, which, though the Princess declared that it had never been in her hands, he said that he had forwarded; and Wyatt himself was flattered with hopes of life if he would extend his confession. Renard carried his ingenuity farther; he called in the assistance of Lady Wyatt, and promised her that her husband should be spared; he even urged the Queen to gain over, by judicious leniency, a man whose apostasy would be a fresh disgrace to his cause, and who might be as useful as a servant as he had been dangerous as a foe. Wyatt, being a man without solidity of heart,