Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/408

388 however, unanimity was at an end. The paragraph about the succession in the Queen's speech being obviously aimed at Elizabeth, produced such an irritation in the council, as well as in Parliament, that Renard expected it would end in actual armed conflict.

From the day of Elizabeth's imprisonment Gardiner had laboured to extort evidence against her by fair means or foul. She had been followed to the Tower by her servants. Sir John Gage desired that her food should be dressed by people of his own. The servants refused to allow themselves to be displaced, and, to the distress of Renard, angry words had been addressed to Gage by Lord Howard, so that they could not be removed by force.

The temptation of life having failed, after all, to induce Wyatt to enlarge his confession beyond his first acknowledgments, it was determined to execute him. On the 11th of April he was brought out of his cell, and on his way to the scaffold he was confronted with Courtenay, to whom he said something, but how much or what it is impossible to ascertain.