edged to the support of Northumberland's inordinate schemes of
ambition; and scarcely any public man of the day, attached to the
protestant cause, escaped better in the affair of lady Jane Grey. It is
true that one writer accuses him of having drawn all the papers in her
favor: but this appears to be, in part at least, either a mistake or a
calumny; and it seems, on the contrary, that he refused to
Northumberland some services of this nature. It has been already
mentioned that his name appeared with those of the other
privy-councillors to Edward's settlement of the crown; and his plea of
having signed it merely as a witness to the king's signature, deserves
to be regarded as a kind of subterfuge. But he was early in paying his
respects to Mary, and he took advantage of the graciousness with which
she received his explanations to obtain a general pardon, which
protected him from all personal danger. He lost however his place of
secretary, which some have affirmed that he might have retained by
further compliances in religion. This however is the more doubtful,
because it cannot be questioned that he must have yielded a good deal on
this point, without which he neither could nor would have made one of a
deputation sent to conduct to England cardinal Pole the papal legate,
nor probably would he have been joined in commission with the cardinal
and other persons sent to treat of a peace with France.

But admitting, as we must, that this eminent statesman was far from
aspiring to the praise of a confessor, he will still be found to deserve
high commendation for the zeal and courage with which, as a member of
parliament, he defended the interests of his oppressed and suffering
fellow-protestants. At considerable hazard to himself, he opposed with
great freedom of speech a bill for confiscating the property of exiles
for religion; and he appears to have escaped committal to the Tower on
this account, solely by the presence of mind which he exhibited before
the council and the friendship of some of its members.

He is known to have maintained a secret and intimate correspondence with
Elizabeth during the time of her adversity, and to have assisted her on
various trying occasions with his salutary counsels; and nothing could
be more interesting than to trace the origin and progress of that
confidential relation between these eminent and in many respects
congenial characters, which after a long course of years was only
terminated