ty which had
first made the ambassadors too prudent, now took the form of measured
cruelty. Renard entreated that Lady Jane should not be spared;
"conspirators required to be taught that for the principals in treason
there was but one punishment; the duke must die, and the rival queen
and her husband must die with him." "We set before her"--Renard's own
hand is the witness against him--"the examples of Maximus and his son
Victor, both executed by the Emperor Theodosius; Maximus, because he
had usurped the purple; Victor, because, as the intended heir of his
father, he might have been an occasion of danger had he lived."[75]

[Footnote 75: Et luy fust propose l'exemple de
Maximus et Victor son filz que Theodose l'Empereur
feit mourir pour s'estre attribue le nom d'Empereur
par tyrannie et l'avoir voulu continuer en son diet
filz Victor, escripvant l'histoire que l'on feit
mourir le filz pour le scandale et danger qu'en
eust peu advenir.--Renard to Charles V.: _Rolls
House MSS._ For the story, see Gibbon, cap. xxvii.]

Looking also, as Renard was already doing, on the scenes which were
around him, chiefly or solely as they might affect the interests of
his master's son, he had been nervously struck by the entourage which
surrounded Elizabeth and the popularity which she, as well as the
queen, was evidently enjoying.

Elizabeth, now passing into womanhood, was the person to whom the
affections of the liberal party in England most definitely tended. She
was the heir-presumptive to the crown; in matters of religion she was
opposed to the mass, and opposed as decidedly to factious and dogmatic
Protestantism; while {p.032} from the caution with which she had
kept aloof from political entanglements, it was clear that her
brilliant intellectual abilities were not her only or her most
formidable gifts. Already she shared the favour of the people with the
queen. Let Mary offend them (and in the intended marriage offence
would unquestionably have to be given), their entire hearts might be
transferred to her. The public finger had pointed to Courtenay as the
husband which England desired for the queen. When Courtenay should be
set aside by Mary, he might be accepted by Elizabeth; and Elizabeth,
it was rumoured, looked upon him with an eye of favour.[76] On all
accounts, therefore,