A slight murmur of applause arose from the council at this announcement.
“You hear that,” cried the Earl of Arundel. “Can you longer hesitate to congratulate the queen on her union?”
The earl was warmly seconded by Paget and Rochester, but no other voice joined them.
“The sense of the assembly is against it,” observed the Earl of Pembroke.
“I am amazed at your conduct, my lords,” cried Gardiner, angrily. “You deny your sovereign the right freely accorded to the meanest of her subjects, the right to choose for herself a husband. For shame! for shame! Your sense of justice, if not your loyalty, should prompt you to act differently. The Prince of Spain has been termed a stranger to this country, whereas his august sire is not merely the queen’s cousin, but the oldest ally of the crown. So far from the alliance being disadvantageous, it is highly profitable, ensuring, as it does, the emperor’s aid against our constant enemies the Scots and the French. Of the truth of this you may judge by the opposition it has met with, overt and secret, from the ambassador of the King of France. But without enlarging upon the advantages of the union, which must be sufficiently apparent to you all, I shall content myself with stating that it is not your province to dictate to the queen whom she shall marry, or whom she shall not marry, but humbly to acquiesce in her choice. Her majesty, in her exceeding goodness, has thought fit to lay before you—a step altogether needless—the conditions of her union. It pains me to say you have received her condescension in a most unbecoming manner. I trust, however, a better feeling has arisen among you, and that you will now enable me to report you, as I desire, to her highness.”
The only assenting voices were those of the three lords constituting the imperial party in the council.
Having waited for a short time, Gardiner bowed gravely, and dismissed the assemblage.
As he was about to quit the presence-chamber, he perceived Courtenay standing in a pensive attitude in the embrasure of a window. Apparently, the room was entirely deserted, except by the two ushers, who, with white wands in their hands, were stationed on either side of the door. It suddenly occurred to Gardiner that this would be a favourable opportunity to question the earl respecting the schemes in which he more than suspected he was a party, and he accordingly advanced towards him.
“You have heard the reception which the announcement of her majesty’s marriage has met with,” he said. “I will frankly own to you it would have been far more agreeable to me to have named your lordship to them. And you have to thank yourself that such has not been the case.”
“True,” replied Courtenay, raising his eyes, and fixing them upon the speaker. “But I have found love more powerful than ambition.”
“And do you yet love Elizabeth?” demanded Gardiner, with a slight sneer. “Is it possible that an attachment can endure with your lordship longer than a month?”
“I never loved till I loved her,” sighed Courtenay.
“Be that as it may, you must abandon her,” returned the chancellor. “The queen will not consent to your union.”
“Your lordship has just observed, in your address to the council,” rejoined Courtenay, “that it is the privilege of all—even of the meanest—to choose in marriage whom they will. Since her highness would exert this right in her own favour, why deny it to her sister?”
“Because her sister has robbed her of her lover,” replied Gardiner. “Strong-minded as she is, Mary is not without some of the weaknesses of her sex. She could not bear to witness the happiness of a rival.”
Courtenay smiled.
“I understand your meaning, my lord,” pursued Gardiner sternly; “but if you disobey the queen’s injunctions in this particular, you will lose your head, and so will the princess.”
“The queen’s own situation is fraught with more peril than mine,” replied Courtenay. “If she persists in her match with the Prince of Spain, she will lose her crown, and then who shall prevent my wedding Elizabeth?”
Gardiner looked at him as he said this so fixedly that the earl involuntarily cast down his eyes.
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