r the character of those
communications was not suspected. That a serious political conspiracy
should have shaped itself round the ravings of a seeming lunatic, to all
appearance had not occurred as a possibility to a single member of the
council, except to those whose silence was ensured by their complicity.

So far as we are able to trace the story (for the links of the chain which
led to the discovery of the design's which were entertained, are something
imperfect), the suspicions of the government were first roused in the
following manner:

Queen Catherine, as we have already seen, had been called upon, at the
coronation of Anne Boleyn, to renounce her title, and she had refused. Mary
had been similarly deprived of her rank as princess; but either her
disgrace was held to be involved in that of her mother, or some other
cause, perhaps the absence of immediate necessity, had postponed the demand
for her own personal submission. As, however, on the publication of the
second marriage, it had been urged on Catherine that there could not be two
queens in England, so on the birth of the Princess Elizabeth, an analogous
argument required the disinheritance of Mary. It was a hard thing; but her
mother's conduct obliged the king to be peremptory. She might have been
legitimatised by act of parliament, if Catherine would have submitted. The
consequences of Catherine's refusal might be cruel, but they were
unavoidable.

Mary was not with her mother. It had been held desirable to remove her from
an influence which would encourage her in a useless opposition; and she was
residing at Beaulieu, afterwards New Hall, in Essex, under the care of Lord
Hussey and the Countess of Salisbury. Lord Hussey was a dangerous guardian;
he was subsequently executed for his complicity in the Pilgrimage of Grace,
the avowed object of which was the restoration of Mary to her place as
heir-apparent. We may believe, therefore, that while under his surveillance
she experienced no severe restraint, nor received that advice with respect
to her conduct which prudence would have dictated. Lord Hussey, however,
for the present enjoyed the confidence of the king, and was directed to
inform his charge, that for the future she was to consider herself not as
princess, but as the king's natural daughter, the Lady Mary Tudor. The
message was a painful one; painful, we will hope, more on her mother's
account than on her own; but her answer implied that, as yet,