"I do not refuse unreasonably, my Lord Chancellor," replied the Countess. "I have strong reasons for not answering."
"Speak them, speak them," said the King; "there can be no just reason for not answering the King in Council."
"I have two reasons," replied the Countess, with a look of scorn; "both of which are good and valid in the English law, whatever they may be in Scotland. First, that being told by his Majesty the marriage of my niece is a crime, I am then asked whether I connived at it. Now the common law of England requires no man to criminate himself."
"Hout, tout," cried the King, "away with her and her common law. How should we ever have got to the bottom of the frightful and diabolical Papist plot, if the prisoners had not criminated themselves?"
"More fools they," replied the Countess of Shrewsbury. "But next I have to say, that I will answer no questions in private. If I am accused of a public crime, I will have a public trial, where my guilt or innocence may appear. There I will answer all questions, and perhaps tell more than those who sit in high places may like to hear. I claim a public trial, I say. I appeal to my country, and claim my privilege as a peeress, to plead my cause before my equals in an open court. I will have no private interrogatories, which are but tricks and entanglements unknown to the law of England."
"Lady, lady," cried one of the Councillors, "you are very rash. It is a well-established principle, that a refusal to answer questions before the Privy Council, touching matters wherein the interest of the state is concerned, is a contempt of the King's prerogative."
"Show me a case," exclaimed the Countess. "You say it is well established--produce an instance where it has been so adjudged; then do with me as you will."
"If there be not a precedent," cried the King, while the Lord Chancellor spoke to some of the Councillors near him, "if there be not a precedent, it is high time we should make one; and you shall be the first, my bonnie Dame."
"If your Majesty be fond of making precedents," said the Countess, still undismayed, "I hope your successors may be found to reverse them; for the dearest inheritance of an Englishman is the equal protection of the law; and I would lose lands and honours, rather than give up that right to any monarch that ever sat upon a throne."
"It is the opinion, sire, of all the Councillors here present," said Lord Ellesmere, "that to refuse to answer is a distinct contempt of your royal prerogative; and although your Majesty, in your sense of clemency and justice, may be inclined to refer the question to the Judges for their decision, yet in the meantime it is perfectly competent for the Council to commit the lady, for safe custody, to the Tower till such decision be pronounced."