Page:The Queens of England.djvu/419

 MARY THE FIRST. 377 ployer, by exciting for him an interest in the breast of the princess. The discovery of this scheme by the protector must have confirmed the suspicions he had long entertained against his brother, of harboring intentions of ultimately transferring his views to Mary, should he not succeed in securing the favor of Elizabeth. Although Mary's health was in so precarious a state as to create great alarm in the minds of her friends, and a belief in her own that her end was rapidly approaching, Somerset, the stern and unfeeling protector, spared her not in pertinaciously urging her to conform to the rules of a re- ligion which her conscience refused to acknowledge.* Another suitor now presented himself for the hand of Mary. This was the Duke of Brunswick, who, though a Protestant prince, was not deterred from seeking a Roman Catholic bride. This suit was declined on the plea that one was then pending between the princess and Don Louis, the infant of Portugal, which, however, never came to a successful termination. The next claimant, the Marquis of Brandenburgh, was likewise a Protestant, and shared no better fortune than her other wooers. Mary was not permitted any long respite from the persecution entailed by her religion. One of her chaplains was arrested beneath her roof, and subjected to harsh treatment in the Tower, and soon after the two principal officers of her house- hold were commanded by the king and privy council to inform their mistress that henceforth the celebration of the mass should be discontinued. Mary, deeply offended, asserted her dignity on this occasion, and for some hours refused to permit her officers to deliver the message with which they were charged. She again appealed to the king by letter, and it ar- gues ill for Edward and his council that they once more com- manded the same persons to return to Mary to repeat the in- sulting message they had previously been charged with. These persons, however, preferred incurring the wrath of the king and council to encountering the anger of their indignant mis- tress ; and the privy council, in consequence, found themselves under the necessity of sending certain members of their body, headed by the lord chancellor, to Mary, then residing at Copt- hall, to enforce her obedience to the king's commands. Mary's conduct on this trying occasion was no less remarkable for its firmness than for its tact, for, while professing every respect for
 * Carte, vol iii, book xiv, p. 233.