'That would be very sad for England were it to happen,' she said. 'Princess Mary is a Papist, you know, and if she became queen she would plunge the kingdom into papistry and persecutions, so that rivers of blood would flow——'
'And the good curates, and Master Montgomery,' I asked, 'what would become of them?' For my thoughts had flown to the limited circle in which I had been brought up and the good old man from whose teachings I was fresh.
'They would be martyred—perchance he would be burned at the stake,' said Lady Caroline.
'No, no,' I cried. 'God would not allow it.'
'God often works by means of man,' the lady answered solemnly, 'and it may be in the power of the more enlightened of the people of England to prevent those calamities from happening.'
'May it? But how?' I asked, my eyes opening wide with wonder. 'What power in the world can prevent Princess Mary from becoming queen upon the death of our young king?'
'Some of the wisest of our nobility, and our poor sick king himself, have thought upon a way,' replied Lady Caroline, adding, 'Mistress Brown, it may be in your power to help to bring it about.'
'How? How?' I cried. 'Explain. Explain.'
Then Lady Caroline explained. She said that to save the country from horrors innumerable, which would fall upon it in the event of a Papist succeeding to the throne, it was deemed expedient that the king should be induced to make a will, or sign letters patent, to appoint that after his death the crown should be placed upon the head of his young relative, Lady Jane Grey, in which case the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth would be pronounced illegitimate and would therefore be passed over.
I did not know what to say to that. It did not seem to me to be quite right, and yet Lady Caroline said it in such a manner as showed that she was completely convinced it was so.