But there were many whom that finding did not convince, who read my lord too well, and would never suffer him to reap the fruits of his evil deed. Prominent among these were Arundel—who himself had aimed at the Queen’s hand—Norfolk and Pembroke, and behind them was a great mass of the people. Indignation against Lord Robert was blazing out, fanned by such screaming preachers as Lever, who, from the London pulpits, denounced the projected marriage, hinting darkly at the truth of Amy Dudley’s death. What was hinted at home was openly expressed abroad, and in Paris Mary Stuart ventured a cruel witticism that Elizabeth was to conserve in her memory: “The Queen of England,” she said, “is about to marry her horse-keeper, who has killed his wife to make a place for her.” Yet Elizabeth persisted in her intent to marry Dudley, until the sober Cecil conveyed to her towards the end of that month of September some notion of the rebellion that was smouldering. She flared out at him, of course. But he stood his ground. “There is,” he reminded her, “this unfortunate matter of a prophecy, as the Bishop of Aquila persists in calling it.” “God’s Body! Is the rogue blabbing?” “What else did your Majesty expect from a man smarting under a sense of injury? He has published it broadcast that on the day before Lady Robert broke her neck, you told him that she was dead or nearly so. And he argues from it a guilty foreknowledge on your Majesty’s part of what was planned.” “A guilty foreknowledge!” She almost choked in rage, and then fell to swearing as furiously in that moment as old King Harry at his worst. “Madame!” he cried, shaken by her vehemence. “I but report the phrase he uses. It is not mine.” “Do you believe it?” “I do not, madame. If I did I should not be here at present.” “Does any subject of mine believe it?” “They suspend their judgment. They wait to learn the truth from the sequel.” “You mean?” “That if your motive prove to be such as de Quadra and others allege, they will be in danger of believing.” “Be plain, man, in God’s name. What exactly is alleged?” He obeyed her very fully. “That my lord contrived the killing of his wife so that he might have liberty to marry your Majesty, and that your Majesty was privy to the deed.” He spoke out boldly, and hurried on before she could let loose her wrath. “It is still in your power, madame, to save your honour, which is now in peril. But there is only one way in which you can accomplish it. If you put from you all thought of marrying Lord Robert, England will believe that de Quadra and those others lied. If you persist and carry out your intention, you proclaim the truth of his report; and you see what must inevitably follow.” She saw indeed, and, seeing, was afraid. Within a few hours of that interview she delivered her answer to Cecil, which was that she had no intention of marrying Dudley.