, I ask it; for I do
all things in the place that I do lie in. My good
and honourable masters, for God's sake, be good to
me, and consider that I did never give my consent
to do no evil. Good Mr. Englefield, consider my
meaning, and be good master to me, and consider the
place I lie in, and the pain of the
stone."--Daniel's Confessions: _MS. Mary,
Domestic_, vol. viii.

The effect, however, apparently was what the
examiners desired. A note of the council remains to
the effect that--

"Daniel being yesterday removed, to a worse
lodging, beginneth this day to be more open and
plain than he hath been, whereby we perceive he
knoweth all, and we trust and think verily he will
utter the same."--Privy Council Minutes, Ibid.]

But the danger did not pass off with the execution of a few youths. An
inveterate conviction had taken hold of men of all ranks, that Philip
was coming over with an army to destroy {p.269} English liberty.
Paget went to Flanders to entreat him to come back unattended, to
dispel the alarm by his presence, and to comfort the queen; but Paget
returned with a letter instead of Philip, and the poor queen looked
ten years older on the receipt of it. She durst not stir abroad to
face the execration with which the people now received her. She passed
her time in frenzied extremities of passion, "because she could
neither enjoy the presence of her husband, nor the affection of her
subjects; and dreading every moment that her life might be attempted
by her own attendants."[569] A fleet was fitted out in the Channel. A
bishop in the queen's confidence was asked the reason by another
bishop. "To overawe rebels," was the answer, "and to carry off
Elizabeth into Flanders or Spain."[570] The government was conducted
entirely by the legate and the small knot of Catholic fanatics who had
adhered to the queen's fortunes in the late reign. Lord William Howard
told Noailles that he and the other lords lived in perpetual dread and
suspicion; if his honour would allow him, he would throw up his
office, and retire, with those who had gone before him, as a poor
gentleman, to France.

[Footnote 569: Estant en