l. He is
but a bastard, and hath no substance; and it might
stand with the Queen's Highness's pleasure there
were no great account to be made whether ye pressed
him to say truth by sharp punishment or promise of
life."--_MS. Domestic, Mary_, vol. iii. State Paper
Office. I do not know to whom Gardiner referred in
the words "little Wyatt."]

But, sooner or later, the queen was determined that every one who
could be convicted should die,[260] and beyond, and above them all,
Elizabeth. Elizabeth's illness, which had been supposed to have been
assumed, was real, and as the feeling of the people towards her
compelled the observance of the forms of justice and decency,
physicians were sent from the court to attend upon her. On the 18th of
February they reported that she could be moved with safety; and,
escorted by Lord William Howard, Sir Edward Hastings, and Sir Thomas
Cornwallis, she was brought by slow stages, of six or seven miles a
day, to London.[261] Renard had described her to the emperor as
probably _enceinte_ through some vile intrigue, and crushed with
remorse and disappointment.[262]

[Footnote 260: Renard to the Emperor: _Rolls House
MSS._]

[Footnote 261: The Order of my Lady Elizabeth's
Grace's Voyage to the Court: _MS. Mary, Domestic_
vol. iii. State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 262: Renard to the Emperor: February 17:
_Rolls House MSS._]

{p.115} To give the lie to all such slanders, when she entered the
city, the princess had the covering of her litter thrown back; she was
dressed in white, her face was pale from her illness, but the
expression was lofty, scornful, and magnificent.[263] Crowds followed
her along the streets to Westminster. The queen, when she arrived at
Whitehall, refused to see her; a suite of rooms was assigned for her
confinement in a corner of the palace, from which there was no egress
except by passing the guard, and there, with short attendance, she
waited the result of Gardiner's investigations. Wyatt, by vague
admissions, had already partially compromised her, and, on the
strength of his words, and the discovery of the copy of her letter in
the packet of Noailles, she would have gone direct to the Tower, had
the lords