Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/405

1554.] pleased to show mercy at the holy season; but it was his duty to remind her that he doubted whether the Prince could be trusted with her.

This argument never failed to drive Mary to madness; and, on the other side, Renard applied to Gardiner to urge despatch in bringing Elizabeth to trial: as long as she lived, there was no security for the Queen, for the Prince, or for religion. Gardiner echoed the same opinion. If others, he said, would go to work as roundly as himself, all would be well.

In this condition of the political atmosphere Parliament assembled on the 2nd of April. The Oxford scheme had been relinquished as impracticable. The Lord Mayor informed the Queen that he would not answer for the peace of the city in the absence of the Court; the Tower might be surprised and the prisoners released; and to lose the Tower would be to lose the crown. The Queen said that she would