Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/452

 432 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 45. approaching session could not fail to be a stormy one ; and Elizabeth knew, though others might affect to be ignorant, that if sheW as forced into a recognition of MgT^_Stuart__a OatholiftjrgvfJTjLtjnTi won]r[jnnj^ hft many months...distant. At the beginning of August, to gather strength and spirit for the struggle, she went on progress, not to the northern counties where the Queen of Scots had hoped to meet her, but first to Stamford on a visit to Cecil, thence round to Woodstock, her old prison in the peril- ous days of her sister, and finally, on the evening of the 3 1st, she paid Oxford the honour which two years before she had conferred on the sister University. The pre- parations for her visit were less gorgeous, the recep- tion itself far less imposing, yet the fairest of her cities in its autumnal robe of sad and mellow loveliness, suited the Queen's humour, and her stay there had a peculiar interest. She travelled in a carriage. At Wolvercot, three miles out on the Woodstock road, she was met by the heads of houses in their gowns and hoods. The approach was by the long north avenue leading to the north gate ; and as she drove along it she saw in front of her the black tower of Bocardo, where Cranmer had been long a prisoner, and the ditch where with his brother martyrs he had given his life for the sins of the people. The scene was changed from that chill, sleety morning, and the soft glow of the August sunset was no unfitting symbol of the change of times ; yet how soon such another season might tread upon the heels of the de-