“Some days ago the King asked his mistress’s aunt, who has charge of the Princess, if the latter had abated her obstinacy, and on being answered ‘No,’ he said there must be some one about her who encouraged her, and conveyed news from the Queen, her mother. The said gouvernante, on consideration, could suspect no one, except the maid of whom I lately wrote, who had been compelled to swear, and on this suspicion, she drove her out, and she has been for some days without any one to go to, or means to support herself. The Princess has been much grieved at this, for she was the only one in whom she had confidence, and by her means, she had letters from me and others. The Queen also is very sorry, but still more because the King has taken from the Princess her confessor, a very good man, and given her another who is a Lutheran, and a tool of his own. During the last few days, the King perceiving that neither by force nor menaces could he get his way with the said Princess, or for some other reasons, has shown her more honour than usual, and used more gracious words, begging that she would lay aside her obstinacy, and he would promise her before Michaelmas to make such a bargain with her, that she should enjoy a royal title and dignity, to which, among 1000 other wise answers, she replied that God had not so blinded her as to confess for any kingdom on earth that the King, her father, and the Queen, her mother, had so long lived in adultery, nor would she contravene the ordinance of the Church, and make herself a bastard. She believes firmly that this dissimulation the King uses is only the more easily to attain his end, and cover poison. But she says she cares little, having full confidence in God, that she will go straight to Paradise, and be quit of the tribulations of this world; and her only grief is about the troubles of the Queen, her mother.”[126] Seeing that she was liable to make mistakes, if guided by her own inexperience, Mary was anxious in future to do nothing without Chapuys’ advice, as the following letter from the ambassador shows:—