“Your Majesty will perceive what vindictive sentiments the arch-traitor nourishes,” observed the lord protector.
“Some allowance must be made for a father’s feelings,” said Sir John Gage. “The loss of such a son as the Earl of Surrey may excuse much passionate grief on the duke’s part.”
“I thank you, good Sir John,” said Norfolk. “Much courage is required to plead for the unfriended captive. One word more with thee, Edward Seymour, and I have done. Thou didst think to obtain possession of my estates. But I have balked thy rapacity. My royal master yielded to my prayer, and allowed me to bestow them upon the prince, his son—and they were a gift that not even a monarch might disdain.”
“We thank you much for your consideration of us, my lord duke,” said Edward, “though we had rather you had been influenced by better motives than appear to have governed your conduct in the affair. Howbeit, we are beholden to you, and to prove our gratitude we hereby offer you a full pardon.”
“Sire!” exclaimed Hertford, startled.
“Interrupt us not, we pray your Highness,” continued the king, with much dignity. “We offer your Grace a free pardon,” he added, to the duke, who awaited the conclusion of his address with deep anxiety, “but we must clothe it with the condition that you renounce your errors, and embrace the Protestant faith.”
“Your Majesty hath said well,” observed the lord protector, approvingly.
“What answer makes your Grace?” asked Edward of the duke.
“Your Majesty’s pardon will avail me little,” replied Norfolk, shaking his head. “I attribute the heavy afflictions with which it has pleased Heaven to visit me to my toleration of many matters contrary to my conscience—but I will sin no more in this manner. I will not change the belief in which I have been nurtured, even to purchase liberty and the restoration of my wealth and honors.”
“Your Grace is very stubborn,” remarked Edward, with a look of displeasure.
“It is idle to argue with him, sire,” said the lord protector. “Severer measures might work his conversion, and these shall be adopted if your Highness wills it.”
“Try them,” cried Norfolk. “Bring the sworn tormentor here, and let him essay his implements upon me. He may wrench my joints asunder, but he shall not tear me from the opinions to which I cling. The crucifix is graven on my heart as deeply as on yonder wall, and cannot be plucked forth, save with life.”
At this juncture, Sir John Gage felt it behoved him to interpose in behalf of the unfortunate duke.
“If your Majesty will listen to one who ever spoke fearlessly to your august father,” said the worthy constable, “and whose sincerity was never questioned, though his bluntness may sometimes have given offence, you will abandon all idea of making the Duke of Norfolk a proselyte. Neither by fair means nor foul will his grace’s conversion be wrought.”
“You are in the right, good Sir John,” cried the duke. “I will die for my faith, if need be, but I will not forsake it.”
“It will be labor in vain, therefore,” continued the constable, “to proceed in a task impossible of accomplishment. More than this, the course will be fraught with consequences inauspicious to the commencement of your reign, as I will venture to point out. The adherents to the old faith—of whom I am one—would consider any undue rigor shown their chief, as they still regard his Grace of Norfolk, on account of his religion, as a blow aimed at themselves, and as an ensample of what they may in turn expect; whereby the minds of half, nay, more than half, your now loving and loyal subjects will be estranged, discontent will speedily manifest itself, and troubles ensue, not easily quelled, and greatly perplexing to the government. Entertaining this view of the matter, I humbly advise your Majesty not to meddle with his Grace of Norfolk’s religion. By making a martyr of him, you will only serve the cause you desire to put down.”
“If your Highness is bent on making a proselyte of the duke, try what reasoning and persuasion will do before having recourse to extreme measures,” remarked Sir Thomas Seymour. “Let his Grace of Canterbury be sent to him.”
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