dence, to prove disloyal intention. Chapuys's letters leave no doubt of
Fisher's real disloyalty. But his desire to bring in an Imperial army was
shared by half the Peers, and, if proof of it could be produced, their
guilty consciences might drive them into open rebellion. It was
ascertained that Fisher and More had communicated with each other in the
Tower on the answers which they were to give. But other points had risen
for which Fisher was not prepared. Among the papers found in his study
were letters in an unknown hand addressed to Queen Catherine, which
apparently the Bishop was to have forwarded to her, but had been prevented
by his arrest. They formed part of a correspondence between the Queen and
some Foreign Prince, carried on through a reverend father spoken of as E.
R. ... alluding to things which "no mortal man was to know besides those
whom it behoved," and to another letter which E. R. had received of the
Bishop himself. Fisher was asked who wrote these letters: "Who was E. R.?
Who was the Prince?" What those things were which no mortal was to know?
If trifles, why the secrecy, and from whom were they to be concealed? What
were the letters which had been received from the Bishop himself to be
sent oversea? The letters found contained also a request to know whether
Catherine wished the writer to proceed to other Princes in Germany and
solicit them; and again a promise that the writer would maintain her cause
among good men there, and would let her know what he could succeed in
bringing to pass with the Princes.

The Bishop was asked whether, saving his faith and allegiance, he ought to
have assisted a man who was engaged in such enterprises, and why he
concealed a matter which he knew to be intended against the King; how the
letter came into his hands, who sent it, who brought it. If the Bishop
refused to answer or equivocated, he was to understand that the King knew
the truth, for he had proof in his hands. The writer was crafty and subtle
and had promised to spend his labour with the Princes that they should
take in hand to defend the Lady Catherine's cause.

The King held the key to the whole mystery. The mine had been undermined.
The intended rebellion was no secret to Henry or to Cromwell. Catherine, a
divorced wife, and a Spanish princess, owed no allegiance in England. But
Fisher was an English subject, and conscience is no excuse for treason,
until the treason succeeds.

Fisher answered warily, bu