rn to whom
Hales had communicated his work. A more disagreeable task could scarcely
have been imposed upon Cecil; for, besides that he must probably have
been aware that his friend and brother-in-law sir Nicholas Bacon was
implicated, it seems that he himself was not entirely free from
suspicion of some participation in the affair. But he readily
acknowledged his duty to the queen to be a paramount obligation to all
others, and he wrote to a friend that he was determined to proceed with
perfect impartiality.

In conclusion, Hales was liberated after half a year's imprisonment.
Bacon, the lord keeper, who appeared to have seen the book, and either
to have approved it, or at least to have taken no measures for its
suppression or the punishment of its author, was not removed from his
office; but he was ordered to confine himself strictly to its duties,
and to abstain henceforth from taking any part in political business.
But by this prohibition Cecil affirmed that public business suffered
essentially, for Bacon had previously discharged with distinguished
ability the functions of a minister of state; and he never desisted from
intercession with her majesty till he saw his friend fully reinstated in
her favor. Lord John Grey of Pyrgo, uncle to lady Catherine, had been a
principal agent in this business, and after several examinations by
members of the privy-council, he was committed to a kind of honorable
custody, in which he appears to have remained till his death, which took
place a few months afterwards. These punishments were slight compared
with the customary severity of the age; and it has plausibly been
conjectured that the anger of Elizabeth on this occasion was rather
feigned than real, and that although she thought proper openly to resent
any attempt injurious to the title of the queen of Scots, she was
secretly not displeased to let this princess perceive that she must
still depend on her friendship for its authentic and unanimous
recognition.

Her anger against the earl of Hertford for the steps taken by him in
confirmation of his marriage was certainly sincere, however unjust. She
was provoked, perhaps alarmed, to find that he had been advised to
appeal against the decision of her commissioners: on better
consideration, however, he refrained from making this experiment; but by
a process in the ecclesiastical courts, with which the queen could not
or would not interfere, he finally succeeded in establishing th