“Hear me, gracious madam,” cried Courtenay, prostrating himself before the queen. “I have avowed thus much, that you may attach due credit to what I am about to declare concerning Renard. My heart was yours, and yours only, till I allowed myself to be influenced by him. I knew not then his design, but it has since been fully revealed. It was to disgust you with me that he might accomplish the main object of his heart—the match with the prince of Spain. He succeeded too well. Utterly inexperienced, I readily yielded to the allurements he spread before me. My indiscretions were reported to you. But, failing in alienating me from your regard, he tried a deeper game, and chose out as his tool, the princess Elizabeth.”
“Ha!” exclaimed Mary.
“He it was,” pursued Courtenay, “who first attracted my attention towards her—who drew invidious comparisons between her youthful charms and your Majesty’s more advanced age. He it was, who hinted at the possibility of an alliance between us—who led me on step by step till I was completely enmeshed. I will own it, I became desperately enamoured of the princess. I thought no more of your highness—of the brilliant prospects lost to me; and, blinded by my passion, became reckless of the perilous position in which I placed myself. But now that I can look calmly behind me, I see where, and why I fell—and I fully comprehend the tempter’s motives.”
“What says your excellency to this?” demanded Mary, sternly.
“Much that the Earl of Devonshire has asserted is true,” replied Renard. “But in rescuing your majesty, at any cost, from so unworthy an alliance, I deserve your thanks, rather than your reprobation. And I shall ever rejoice that I have succeeded.”
“You have succeeded at my expense, and at the expense of many of my bravest and best subjects,” replied Mary, severely. “But the die is cast, and cannot be recalled.”
“True,” replied Renard, with a smile of malignant satisfaction.
“Will your highness pursue your investigations further tonight?” demanded Gardiner.
“No,” replied the queen, who appeared lost in thought. “Let the Princess Elizabeth be taken back to the Bell Tower, and Courtenay to his prison in the Bowyer Tower. I will consider upon their sentence. Wyat is respited for the present. I shall interrogate him further.”
With this, she quitted the torture-chamber with her train, and the prisoners were removed as she had directed.