However, as no nobleman could be found willing to undertake the dangerous office of watching Elizabeth, she was imprisoned in the Tower also. In March Count Egmont returned to England, bringing Mary an engagement ring from Philip, which he presented before her whole court. She received it with thanks, and sent a kind message to the prince, who, she said, had not yet written to her. Renaud, the Spanish ambassador, kept continually calling her attention to the fact that Philip would not be safe in England until the rebels, especially Elizabeth and Courtenay, had been punished. But Mary put him off with some general remark each time, and thus dismissed the unwelcome subject. She had loved her sister from infancy, and was too constant in her affection to destroy her now. Gardiner was accused of protecting the princess; but it was only because of his friendship for Courtenay, with whom she was implicated in the rebellion, that he refrained from showing enmity towards her. He was really a friend to Courtenay, whose family had been martyrs to Catholicism, and for some time had been his fellow-prisoner in the Tower, where their attachment had been strengthened. On the 5th of May the queen, having recovered from a {046}very severe spell of illness, dissolved parliament in person, and made such an eloquent address that she was interrupted five or six times by loud shouts of "Long live the queen!" and many persons wept. A couple of weeks later Elizabeth was removed from the Tower to Woodstock, where she was closely watched by part of the queen's guard, and Courtenay was sent to Fotheringay Castle, also under guard. The same week a Spanish grandee arrived in England to prepare for the reception of Prince Philip, to whom Queen Mary had written a letter announcing the consent of her parliament to their marriage. The prince embarked for England July 13, and meantime Mary retired with her council to Richmond Palace to decide what station her husband was to occupy. She considered it her duty to yield implicit obedience; and this notion was the cause of many crimes of which she was guilty later in life. When she asked whether her name or Philip's should be placed first in the legal documents, Renaud replied, indignantly, "that neither divine nor human laws would suffer his highness to be named last." She next wished to know whether he was to be crowned as king. Her council objected very decidedly, but agreed that the moment he touched English ground he should have a collar and mantle of the Garter worth two thousand pounds. When the news arrived that the combined fleets of England and Spain, amounting to one hundred and sixty sails, had made the port of Southampton, the queen was at Windsor Castle. Next day she set out with her bridal retinue for Winchester, where she intended her marriage to be celebrated.