By this gesture, fifty years later, when past speech, Queen
Elizabeth answered the question of Robert Cecil concerning her
successor. She meant, and he understood her to mean--"Let it be a
King."

Note 2. The cause of the first tumult was a sudden panic, occasioned by
the running of some of the guards who arrived late; the second was due
to the appearance of Sir Anthony Browne, whom the people fancied had
been sent with a reprieve.

Note 3.
"Kingdoms are but cares,
State is devoid of stay,
Riches are ready snares,
And hasten to decay."

_King Henry the Sixth_.

Note 4. Don and Dona are prefixes restricted to the Christian name. An
Englishman using Don with the surname (an error to which our countrymen
are strangely prone) commits the very same blunder for which he laughs
at the Frenchman who says "Sir Peel."

Note 5. A common Spanish greeting, the absurdity of which makes us
sympathise with Lope de Vega's Diana, in her matter-of-fact
reply,--"Estan a los pies asidas" (They are fixed to my feet).

Note 6. Inez, the form more familiar to English readers, is the
Portuguese spelling.

Note 7. Katherine is not really a translation of Catalina, but they
were considered interchangeable at this time.

Note 8. Denia was at one time anxious to get rid of De Avila, because
he was too gentle and lenient!

CHAPTER SEVEN.

HOW HOPE DIED WITH EDWARD.

"Alma real, dignissima d'impero,
Se non fossi fra noi scesa si tardo."

Petrarch.

Thus, to soft music, with sufficient minor chords to form a pleasant
contrast to the glad notes of the grand chorus, glided in upon the stage
of England the five awful years of the Marian persecution.

Never had there been five such years in England. The sanguinary
struggles of the Roses, the grinding oppression of Henry the Seventh,
the spasmodic cruelties of Henry the Eighth, were not to be compared
with this time. Of all persecutors, none is, because none other can be,
so coldly, mercilessly, hopelessly unrelenting, as he who believes
himself to be doing God service.

And now the floods of the great waters came nigh the struggling Church.
The storm fell upon her, as it never fell in this island before or
since. The enemy had gathered his forces for one grand effort to crush
the life out of her.

But the life was immortal. The waves beat powerlessly against the frail
barque; for it held One who, though He seemed verily "asleep on a
pillow," was