recommended her. She had no
intention, however, of parting with her pretensions, and alienating her
friends, as long as there was no brother whose claims she could not
dispute. Chapuys had imagined, and Mary had believed, that the Emperor
would have resented the alleged poisoning of Catherine; that, instead of
her death removing the danger of war, as Henry supposed, war had now
become more certain than ever. With this impression, the Princess still
kept her mind fixed on escaping out of the country, and continued to press
Chapuys to take her away. She had infinite courage; a Flemish ship was
hovering about the mouth of the Thames ready to come up, on receiving
notice, within two or three miles of Gravesend. The house to which she had
been removed was forty miles from the place where she would have to
embark; it was inconvenient for the intended enterprise, and was, perhaps,
guarded, though she did not know it. She thought, however, that, if
Chapuys would send her something to drug her women with, she could make
her way into the garden, and the gate could be broken open. "She was so
eager," Chapuys said, "that, if he had told her to cross the Channel in a
sieve, she would venture it;" the distance from Gravesend was the
difficulty: the Flemish shipmaster was afraid to go higher up the river: a
forty miles' ride would require relays of horses, and the country through
which she had to pass was thickly inhabited. Means, however, might be
found to take her down in a boat, and if she was once out of England, and
under the Emperor's protection, Chapuys was convinced that the King would
no longer kick against the pricks.

Mary herself was less satisfied on this point. Happy as she would be to
find herself out of personal danger, she feared her father might still
persist in his heresies, and bring more souls to perdition; "she would,
therefore, prefer infinitely," she said, "the general and total remedy so
necessary for God's service." She wished Chapuys to send another messenger
to the Emperor, to stir him up to activity. But Chapuys, desperate of
rousing Charles by mere entreaties, encouraged her flight out of the
country as the surest means of bringing Henry to a reckoning. The
difficulty would not be very great; the King had shown an inclination to
be more gentle with her; Mrs. Shelton had orders to admit her mother's
physician to her at any time that he pleased; and others of the household
at Kimbolton were to be transferred