tion involved them. Cecil saw with a fatal clearness the
silent opposition of the whole realm to the system of the Protectorate,
and the knowledge of this convinced him that the Duke's schemes for a
change in the succession were destined to failure. On the disclosure of
the plot to set Mary aside he withdrew for some days from the court, and
even meditated flight from the country, till fear of the young king's
wrath drew him back to share in the submission of his fellow-counsellors
and to pledge himself with them to carry the new settlement into effect.
But Northumberland had no sooner quitted London than Cecil became the
soul of the intrigues by which the royal Council declared themselves in
Mary's favour. His desertion of the Duke secured him pardon from the
Queen, and though he was known to be in heart "a heretic" he continued
at court, conformed like Elizabeth to the established religion,
confessed and attended mass. Cecil was employed in bringing Pole to
England and in attending him in embassies abroad. But his caution held
him aloof from any close connexion with public affairs. He busied
himself in building at Burghley and in the culture of the Church lands
he had won from Edward the Sixth, while he drew closer to the girl who
alone could rescue England from the misgovernment of Mary's rule. Even
before the Queen's death it was known that Cecil would be the chief
counsellor of the coming reign. "I am told for certain," the Spanish
ambassador wrote to Philip after a visit to Elizabeth during the last
hours of Mary's life, "that Cecil who was secretary to King Edward will
be her secretary also. He has the character of a prudent and virtuous
man, although a heretic." But it was only from a belief that Cecil
retained at heart the convictions of his earlier days that men could
call him a heretic. In all outer matters of faith or worship he
conformed to the religion of the state.

[Sidenote: The Politicals.]

It is idle to charge Cecil, or the mass of Englishmen who conformed with
him in turn to the religion of Henry, of Edward, of Mary, and of
Elizabeth, with baseness or hypocrisy. They followed the accepted
doctrine of the time--that every realm, through its rulers, had the sole
right of determining what should be the form of religion within its
bounds. What the Marian persecution was gradually pressing on such men
was a conviction, not of the falsehood of such a doctrine, but of the
need of limiting it. Under Henry,