the Court was once more in terror. The
Judges advised that a strict form of submission should be drawn, and that
the Princess should be required to sign it. If she persisted in her
refusal, she would then be liable to the law. The difficulty was overcome,
or evaded, in a manner characteristic of the system to which Mary so
passionately adhered. Chapuys drew a secret protest that, in submitting,
she was yielding only to force. Thus guarded, he assured her that her
consent would not be binding, that the Pope would not only refrain from
blaming her, but would highly approve. She was still unsatisfied, till she
made him promise to write to the Imperial Ambassador at Rome to procure a
secret absolution from the Pope for the full satisfaction of her
conscience. Thus protected, she disdainfully set her name to the paper
prepared by the Judges, without condescending to read it, and the marked
contempt, in Chapuys's opinion, would serve as an excuse for her in the
future.[444]

While the crisis lasted the Council were in permanent session. Timid Peers
were alarmed at the King's peremptoriness, and said that it might cost him
his throne. The secret process by which Mary had been brought to yield may
have been conjectured, and her resistance was not forgotten, but she had
signed what was demanded, and it was enough. In the Court there was
universal delight. Chapuys congratulated Cromwell, and Cromwell led him to
believe that the crown would be settled as he wished. The King and Queen
drove down to Richmond to pay the Princess a visit. Henry gave her a
handsome present of money and said that now she might have anything that
she pleased. The Queen gave her a diamond. She was to return to the court
and resume her old station. One cloud only remained. If it was generally
understood that the heir presumptive in her heart detested the measures in
which she had formally acquiesced, the country could no longer be expected
to support a policy which would be reversed on the King's death. Mary's
conduct left little doubt of her real feelings, and therefore it was not
held to be safe to give her by statute the position which her friends
desired for her. The facility with which the Pope could dispense with
inconvenient obligations rendered a verbal acquiescence an imperfect
safeguard. Parliament, therefore, did not, after all, entail the crown
upon her, in the event of the King's present marriage being unfruitful,
but left her to deserve it an