Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/96

 76 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 41. ments. 1 Sir William Cecil, not charging Providence till man had done his part, found the occasion rather in the dense crowding of the lodging-houses, 'by reason that the owners and tenants for greediness and lucre did take unto them other inhabitants and families to dwell in their chambers ; ' he therefore ordered that ' every house or shop should have but one master and one family/ and that aliens and strangers should re- move. 2 The danger alarmed the council into leniency to- wards the State prisoners. The Tower was emptied. The Catholic prelates were distributed among the houses of their rivals and successors ; Lady Catherine Grey was committed to the charge of her father's brother, broken in health, heart, and spirit, praying, but praying in vain, that ' her lord and husband might be restored to her/ and pining slowly towards the grave into which a few years later she sank. 3 The victims who died of the plague were chiefly ob- scure ; one person however perished in it whose disap- pearance the reader will perhaps regret. The_sjfcory_jnustgo back for a few pages. The King of Spain, after receiving de Quadra's letter which contained the proposals of the Queen of Scots for the Prince of Spain, took time to consider his answer, and at length on the I5th of June replied as follows : 1 Grindal to Cecil, February 22, 1564: Lansdowne MSS. 7. 2 SirWm. Cecil's Injunction: MS. Ibid. 3 Letters of Lord John and Lady Catherine Grey : Lansdowne MSS.