Each one was ordered on his allegiance, to inform the Council if this command were disobeyed, and when after some time, the commissioners were waiting outside the house for one of the chaplains who had not been present when the charge was given, they go on to say that, “the Lady Mary’s Grace sent to us to speak with her one word at a window. When we were come into the court, notwithstanding that we offered to come up to her chamber, she would needs speak out of the window, and prayed us to speak to the Lords of the Council, that her comptroller might shortly return, for said she sythens his departing I take the account myself of my expenses, and learn how many loaves of bread be made of a bushel of wheat, and ye wis my father and my mother never brought me up with baking and brewing, and to be plain with you, I am weary of mine office, and therefore, if my Lords will send my officer home, they shall do me pleasure, otherwise if they will send him to prison, I beshrew him if he go not to it merrily, and with a good-will. And I pray God to send you to do well in your souls and bodies too, for some of you have but weak bodies.”[281] Instead of granting this last request, the Council committed the three officers, Rochester, Waldegrave and Inglefield to the Tower, where they remained till the 18th March 1552, and a month later, the same Lords addressed letters to the Lady Mary’s Grace, that her servants be sent unto her according to her desire. By that time, another wave had swept over Mary’s destiny. For some reason that has never been apparent, the King’s counsellors changed their tactics, and the Princess was henceforth allowed to practise her religion in peace. Edward’s health was rapidly declining, and the bold design of the Duke of Northumberland to set aside her rights, and annul her father’s will, had not yet been framed. It might, therefore, have been judged prudent, somewhat to conciliate one who stood so near the throne, and who might soon be called upon to mount it. Moreover, in 1550, Sir John Masone informed the Council that the Emperor had serious thoughts of carrying her off, and in 1551 we find that certain pinnaces were prepared for her secret transport over sea.[282] Perhaps both these considerations weighed with the Council, and the fall of Somerset further turned the scale in her favour by ridding Mary of her bitterest enemy. He was again arrested in December 1551, lodged in the Tower, and tried for high treason. Acquitted of this charge, he was condemned for felony, and executed within six weeks. The fact is notified in Edward’s Journal in the words: “The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower hill, between eight and nine o’clock in the morning” (22nd January 1552).