party was reconverting to
the Reformation with a rapidity like that produced by the gift of
tongues on the day of Pentecost, looked on the martyrs as soldiers are
looked at who are called to accomplish, with the sacrifice of their
lives, some great service for their country. Cardmaker, on his first
examination, had turned his back and flinched. But the consciousness
of shame, and the example of others, gave him back his courage; he was
called up again under the queen's mandate, condemned, and brought out
on the 30th of May, to suffer at Smithfield, with an upholsterer named
Warne. The sheriffs produced the pardons. Warne, without looking at
them, undressed at once, and went to the stake; Cardmaker "remained
long talking;" "the people in a marvellous dump of sadness, thinking
he would recant." He turned away at last, and knelt, and prayed; but
he had still his clothes on; "there was no semblance of burning;" and
the crowd continued nervously agitated, till he rose and threw off his
cloak. "Then, seeing this, contrary to their fearful expectations, as
men delivered out of great doubt, they cried out for joy with so great
a shout as hath not been lightly heard a greater, God be praised; the
Lord strengthen thee, Cardmaker. The Lord Jesus receive thy
spirit."[477] Every martyr's trial was a battle; every constant death
was a defeat of the common enemy; and the instinctive consciousness
that truth was asserting itself in suffering, converted the natural
emotion of horror into admiring pride.

[Footnote 477: Foxe, vol. vii.]

Yet, for the great purpose of the court, the burnt-offerings were
ineffectual as the prayers of the priests. The queen was allowed to
persuade herself that she had mistaken her time by two months; and to
this hope she clung herself, so long as the hope could last: but among
all other persons concerned, scarcely one was any longer under a
delusion; and the clear-eyed Renard lost no time in laying the
position of affairs before his master.

The marriage of Elizabeth and Philibert had hung fire, from the
invincible unwillingness on the part of Mary to pardon or in any way
recognise her sister;[478] and as long as there was a hope of a child,
she had not perhaps been pressed about it; but {p.214} it was now
absolutely necessary to do something, and violent measures towards the
princess were more impossible than ever.

[Footnote 478: A letter of Mary's to Philip on th