eretical spirit was still unsubdued.
The queen dissolved her fourth parliament on the 9th of December; and
several gentlemen who had spoken out with unpalatable freedom were
seized and sent to the Tower. She was unwise, thought Noailles; such
arbitrary acts were only making her day by day more detested, and,
should opportunity offer, would bring her to utter destruction.

[Footnote 521: Noailles.]

[Footnote 522: Michele, the Venetian ambassador, in
his curious but most inaccurate account of England
during this reign, states that the queen had it in
her power to cut off Elizabeth from the succession,
but that she was prevented from doing it by Philip.
Michele's information suffered from the policy of
Venice. Venice held aloof from the complications of
the rest of Europe, and her representatives were
punished by exclusion from secrets of state. The
letters of Noailles might be suspected, but the
correspondence of Renard with Charles V. leaves no
doubt whatever either as to the views of the
Spaniards towards Elizabeth, of their designs on
the crown, or of the causes by which they were
baffled.]

[Footnote 523: Noailles to the King of France,
December 16.]

[Footnote 524: The witty Katherine Brandon, widow
of Henry VIII.'s Charles Brandon, married to
Richard Bertie. She was a lady of advanced
opinions, between whom and the Bishop of Winchester
there were some passages-at-arms. She dressed a dog
in a rochet on one occasion, and called it Bishop
Gardiner.

Gardiner himself said that he was once at a party
at the Duke of Suffolk's, and it was a question who
should take the duchess down to dinner. She wanted
to go with her husband; but as that could not be,
"My lady," said Gardiner, "taking me by the hand,
for that my lord would not take her himself, said
that, forasmuch as she could not sit down with my
l