Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/105

 I5 6 9-1 ENGLISH PARTIES. gl after all. ' There is a great change/ Don Guerau wrote. ' The complaints are loud against Cecil, who has ma- noeuvred with astonishing skill. I know not what will happen. I can only say that with the party which the Duke commands in the country he can only fail through cowardice.' 1 The Duke thought so too, and at Kening- hall, where his ante-rooms were thronged with knights and gentlemen, all hanging upon his word, his courage came back to him. He refused at first to see the mes- senger. He said he was too ill to leave his house. If the Queen would send a member of the council to him, he would answer her questions where he was. But again after a day or two his heart J October, tailed him. A message came to him from Leicester, that he had nothing to fear from submission. If he persisted in disobedience he would be proclaimed a traitor. He would then have to commit his fate to the chances of civil war, and he persuaded himself that he would compromise the Queen of Scots. 2 His illness had no existence except in his alarms. The messenger had lingered waiting for his final resolution ; he with- drew his answer and made up his mind to return. His friends and servants, clearer-sighted than himself, en- treated him not to leave them. They held him by the knees, they clung to his stirrup-leathers as he mounted his horse, crying that he was going to the scaffold. 1 ' No se lo que sucedera. En- tiendo quo segnn los amigos que el Duque tiene en el Reyno no pucdo perderse sino por pusillanimidad.' J)on Guerau to Philip, September 30. 2 ' Como dice por escusar el evidente peligro de la de Escocia que esta en poder de sus enemigos. ' Don Guerau to Philip, October 8.