'Is it joy which now withholds Mary, or is it fear? She rejoices, that I know, but she also fears. Yet why should Mary fear now when Herod is dead? The providence of God permitted her to fear for awhile, because God desired that you, sire, who are Peter's beloved child, should share the great work with her. Do you, therefore, teach her now to cast her fears away. It is not I only who stand here—it is not only Peter—Christ is here—Christ waits with me till you will open and take him in. You who are King of England, are defender of Christ's faith; yet, while you have the ambassadors of all other princes at your Court, you will not have Christ's ambassador; you have rejected your Christ.
'Go on upon your way. Build on the foundation of worldly policy, and I tell you, in Christ's words, that the rain will fall, the floods will rise, the winds will blow, and beat upon that house, and it will fall, and great will be the fall thereof.'[1]
The pleading was powerful, yet it could bear no fruits—the door could not open till the Pope pronounced the magic words which held it closed. Neither Philip nor Mary was in a position to use violence or force the bars.
After the ceremony at Winchester, the King and Queen had gone first to Windsor, and thence the second week in August they went to Richmond. The entry into London was fixed for the 18th; after which, should it pass off without disturbance, the Spanish fleet might
- ↑ Pole to Philip: Epist. Reg. Pol. vol. iv.
