sword and lance. Weston and
Brereton persisted in absolute denial.

Meanwhile the Commission continued to take evidence. A more imposing list
of men than those who composed it could not have been collected in
England. The members of it were the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Norfolk,
the Duke of Suffolk, Lord Wiltshire, Anne's and Rochford's father, the
Earls of Oxford, Westmoreland, and Sussex, Lord Sandys, Thomas Cromwell,
Sir William Fitzwilliam, the Lord High Admiral, Sir William Paulet, Lord
Treasurer, and nine judges of the courts at Westminster. Before these
persons the witnesses were examined and their depositions written down.
"The confessions," Cromwell wrote afterwards to Gardiner, "were so
abominable that a great part of them were not given in evidence, but were
clearly kept secret."[404]

The alleged offences had been committed in two counties. The Grand Juries
of Kent and Middlesex returned true bills on the case presented to them.
On the 7th of May writs were sent out for a new Parliament, to be chosen
and to meet immediately. The particular charges had been submitted to the
Grand Juries with time, place, and circumstance. The details have been
related by me elsewhere.[405] In general the indictment was that for a
period of more than two years, from within a few weeks after the birth of
Elizabeth to the November immediately preceding, the Queen had repeatedly
committed acts of adultery with Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton,
Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeton, and her brother Lord Rochford. In every
case the instigation and soliciting were alleged to have been on the
Queen's side. The particulars were set out circumstantially, the time at
which the solicitations were made, how long an interval elapsed between
the solicitation and the act, and when and where the several acts were
committed. Finally it was said that the Queen had promised to marry some
one of these traitors whenever the King depart this life, affirming that
she would never love the King in her heart.

Of all these details evidence of some kind must have been produced before
the Commission, and it was to this that Cromwell referred in his letter to
Gardiner. The accused gentlemen were all of them in situations of trust
and confidence at the court, with easy access to the Queen's person, and,
if their guilt was real, the familiarity to which they were admitted
through their offices was a special aggravation of their offences.

In a court