Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/477

 1 5 7 1. ] THE RID OLF7 CONSPIRA C Y. 463 Yet he was still but half false, and Parker had pre- pared Burghley to understand the meaning of this base offer. Baily was left in the Tower, to find himself, to his surprise, in no better favour with Cecil, and re- proached as a coward by his old friends. He could but excuse himself to Don Guerau, by saying that Cecil knew already more about Ridolfi than he had himself admitted ; and that except for what Doctor Story had told him, he would have suffered death rather than have confessed a single thing. 1 The Bishop of Boss meanwhile, sick, with fears that Baily would confess under the rack, had taken to his bed. He ate nothing for three days, and lay barricaded in his house, having given orders to his porter to admit no one to him. He could tell secrets which Baily could not, and the question now with Cecil was how to ex- tract them from him. Herle's services were again therefore put in requisition. The warning against him which had been sent by Baily having been intercepted, the Bishop, though he had vague misgivings about him, had no reason to suspect him of treachery, and with judicious treatment his full confidence might perhaps be recovered. After a short correspondence, in which the stages of the farce were pre-arranged, Herle was sent for to the council, examined, and being found contumacious, was loaded with irons and threat- ened with torture. In this seeming extremity he wrote to the Bishop to implore his prayers, and his advice. He desired, as he told Burghley, ' to beget some kind Charles Baily to Don Guerau, May 10 : MSS. Simancas.