a reconciliation was to be effected between Gardiner and Paget, and the whole business of State was to be managed by them, with the assistance of Petre, the Earl of Arundel, and two others. Renard thought that this solution was the only one which offered any security for Philip’s safety, and when the Queen was induced by some of her Councillors to pardon on Good Friday the Marquis of Northampton and eight more prisoners implicated in the Wyatt rising, the Imperial ambassador roundly scolded her for her ill-timed clemency. It was not by any means certain, he said, that Philip would consent to come to England at all. The dissensions of her Councillors were very dangerous, and it behoved her to consider very carefully, since the security must be furnished by her, and the Prince could not come armed, what a scandal and calamity it would be if anything happened to him.[44] Mary wept at this, and said that “she would rather never have been born than that any outrage should be committed on his Highness, but she trusted to God that no such thing would occur. All her Councillors would do their duty in receiving the Prince, and are in great hopes of him. She would reform her Council and reduce it to six members; she would do her best to incline her subjects to his Highness’s favour; and she would take good care that the cases of Courtenay and Elizabeth were finished before the Prince arrived.”[45] [Illustration: WILLIAM LORD PAGET FROM A PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY] Noailles and the French sympathisers, too, were still at work stirring up alarm at the coming of the Spaniards. Here was a bridegroom, they sneered, who was coming to win a wife, with a great army intended to land on English soil and proclaim himself King in his own right, with all his swarm of priests, friars, and inquisitors to oppress the English people. Even the English sailors on Howard’s ships were so distrustful of the Spaniards that when the Flemish crews of the Emperor’s fleet set foot on shore during the time they awaited Philip’s arrival the visitors were hustled and insulted everywhere, whilst the Lord Admiral himself had openly mocked at their ships as mussel-shells.[46] Whether it be true, as was asserted, that Howard committed the grave discourtesy of throwing a shot across the bows of the Prince’s fleet to compel a salute to the English flag is doubtful, but it is certain that the feeling in the country amongst high and low as the time went on was as strongly against the Spanish bridegroom as ever.