kneel for pardon: but all in a spirit of hypocrisy. Accordingly, he
comes with his men to the queen on Wanstead Heath, and throws up his
cap, crying: “God save Queen Mary!” But the queen is not deceived, and
orders him under arrest. Jane and Guilford are next seen in the Tower,
where Jane’s nobleness of soul shines out more attractively than ever.
Mary, on the contrary, yields to a vindictive spirit in refusing the
pardon her cousin so meekly implores. Fakenham’s benevolent attempt is
fruitless. Jane is committed to the custody of her parents (who
themselves have been pardoned), but separated from her husband and
confined within the Tower. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester――one of the
prisoners released by Mary’s triumph――begins his fatal influence on
the queen. His character is drawn from the usual Protestant
stand-point. He is Mary’s evil genius as much as Fakenham is her good
one.
With the fourth Act comes the trial of Northumberland, Jane, and
Guilford. Gardiner, as chancellor, conducts the prosecution. After
splendid speeches on either side the prisoners are found guilty, and
Mary passes sentence of death. But the queen, as she breaks up the
court, betraying her fondness for Exeter, Northumberland, who has long
been aware of the attachment, craves a private conversation with that
favorite, and puts him up to making love to Mary and then obtaining
his (Dudley’s) pardon. Accordingly, in the next scene Courtenaye
proffers his suit, wins the royal hand and, with it, the traitor’s
reprieve. But when, presently, Gardiner brings the death-warrant for
Mary’s signature, and she bids him prepare a pardon instead, he tells
her of Courtenaye’s private talk with Dudley after the trial, and how
“a quick ear caught words” to the effect that it was the Princess
Elizabeth he loved. So that the last scene of the Act is a very strong
one: Mary coming unobserved upon Exeter as he woos the disdainful
Elizabeth, and hearing him declare that he loathes her whom he needs
must wed. The queen’s despair at finding how she has been deceived
gives way to a burst of fury, in which she tears up Dudley’s pardon
and signs his death-warrant, with the order that it be executed before
sunset. The false Courtenaye, and Elizabeth with him, is sent at once
to the Tower.