[Footnote 128: Renard to Charles V.: _Rolls House
MSS._]

No wonder, therefore, that the whole council were in confusion and at
cross purposes. No sooner were Charles's proposals definitely known
than the entire machinery of the government was dislocated. Mary
represented herself to Renard as without a friend whom she could
trust; and the letters, both of Renard and Noailles, contain little
else but reports how the lords were either quarrelling, or had, one
after the other, withdrawn in disgust to their country houses. Now it
was Pembroke that was gone, now Mason, now Paget; then Courtenay was a
prisoner in his house; then Lord Winchester was forbidden to appear at
court: the ministers were in distrust of each other and of their
mistress; the queen was condemned to keep them in their offices
because she durst not make them enemies; while the Stanleys, Howards,
Talbots, and Nevilles were glooming apart, indignant at the neglect of
their own claims.

The queen herself was alternately angry and miserable; by the middle
of September Renard congratulated Charles on her growing ill-humour;
the five Dudleys and Lady Jane, he hoped, would be now disposed of,
and Elizabeth would soon follow.

Elizabeth's danger was great, and proceeded as much from her friend's
indiscretion as from the hatred of her enemies. Every one who disliked
the queen's measures, used Elizabeth's name. Renard was for ever
hissing his suspicions in the queen's ear, and, unfortunately, she was
a too willing listener--not, indeed, that Renard hated Elizabeth for
her own sake, for he rather admired her--or for religion's sake, for
he had a most statesmanlike indifference to religion; but he saw in
her the queen's successful rival in the favour of the people, the
heir-presumptive to the crown, whose influence would increase the
further the queen travelled on the road on which he was leading her,
and, therefore, an enemy who, if possible, should be destroyed. An
opportunity of creating a collision between the sisters was not long
wanting. The lords of the council were {p.058} now generally present
at mass in the royal chapel. Elizabeth, with Anne of Cleves, had as
yet refused to appear. Her resistance was held to imply a sinister
intention; and on the 2nd and 3rd of September the council were
instructed to bring her to compliance.[129] Yet the days passed, the
priest sang, and the heir to the crown continued absent. Gard