At the beginning of the second session, the Commons, largely under the influence of de Noailles, waited a fortnight for the opportunity to present the Queen with an address which they had voted on the all-engrossing subject. Pleading illness, Mary sought time for further reflection. Then she sent suddenly for the Lower House, to attend on her at once. The Speaker presented himself, accompanied by twenty members, all that could be collected in haste. In his hurry, he had forgotten to provide himself with the address, but his eloquence made up for all deficiencies of form. He spoke so long and tediously, that Mary became impatient, and sat down, contrary to her wont. With a great deal of circumlocution, he prayed the Queen to marry, but not to choose a husband among foreigners, and he expatiated on the advantages she would derive from a union with a member of the English nobility. Such language, respectful though it might be, was not such as to be acceptable to Tudor ears, and in an aside, Mary exclaimed that she would be a match for all her Chancellor’s cunning.[365] When the Speaker had finished, she rose to reply, although the answer should rightly have devolved on Gardiner, as Chancellor, an innovation that caused Paget to rally him afterwards on his disgrace, the Queen having deprived him of his office. Her words were short and characteristic: “For that you desire to see us married,” she said, “we thank you. Your desire to dictate to us the consort whom we shall choose, we consider somewhat superfluous. The English Parliament has not been wont to use such language to its sovereigns, and when private persons on such matters suit their own tastes, sovereigns may reasonably be allowed to choose whom they prefer.” Herewith she dismissed them, and a few days later, Parliament was dissolved.[366] [Illustration: QUEEN MARY. From the portrait by Sir Antonio More, at Madrid.] The truth was, that in the interval of her seclusion, Mary had been making up her mind. In an interview with Renard on the 14th October, she had questioned him minutely as to Philip’s character and disposition, entreating him several times to tell her truly, whether the Prince was in fact moderate, well-regulated, and such in very deed as he had been described to her. She seized both of Renard’s hands, and implored him to be open with her, speaking to her as if he were her confessor. Renard protested warmly that he was ready to pledge his honour and his life, that the Prince of Spain was all that she could desire in a husband. Still, only half-satisfied, Mary continued to express regret that a meeting should be considered impracticable, before her final decision.[367] In default of the original, whom the Emperor would by no means subject to the insulting possibility of not pleasing, a portrait of the Prince by Titian, was sent for Mary’s acceptance by the Queen of Hungary, Philip’s aunt.[368]