ACT III.――We have Northumberland giving up the game and resolving to

kneel for pardon: but all in a spirit of hypocrisy. Accordingly, he comes with his men to the queen on Wanstead Heath, and throws up his cap, crying: “God save Queen Mary!” But the queen is not deceived, and orders him under arrest. Jane and Guilford are next seen in the Tower, where Jane’s nobleness of soul shines out more attractively than ever. Mary, on the contrary, yields to a vindictive spirit in refusing the pardon her cousin so meekly implores. Fakenham’s benevolent attempt is fruitless. Jane is committed to the custody of her parents (who themselves have been pardoned), but separated from her husband and confined within the Tower. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester――one of the prisoners released by Mary’s triumph――begins his fatal influence on the queen. His character is drawn from the usual Protestant stand-point. He is Mary’s evil genius as much as Fakenham is her good one.

With the fourth Act comes the trial of Northumberland, Jane, and Guilford. Gardiner, as chancellor, conducts the prosecution. After splendid speeches on either side the prisoners are found guilty, and Mary passes sentence of death. But the queen, as she breaks up the court, betraying her fondness for Exeter, Northumberland, who has long been aware of the attachment, craves a private conversation with that favorite, and puts him up to making love to Mary and then obtaining his (Dudley’s) pardon. Accordingly, in the next scene Courtenaye proffers his suit, wins the royal hand and, with it, the traitor’s reprieve. But when, presently, Gardiner brings the death-warrant for Mary’s signature, and she bids him prepare a pardon instead, he tells her of Courtenaye’s private talk with Dudley after the trial, and how “a quick ear caught words” to the effect that it was the Princess Elizabeth he loved. So that the last scene of the Act is a very strong one: Mary coming unobserved upon Exeter as he woos the disdainful Elizabeth, and hearing him declare that he loathes her whom he needs must wed. The queen’s despair at finding how she has been deceived gives way to a burst of fury, in which she tears up Dudley’s pardon and signs his death-warrant, with the order that it be executed before sunset. The false Courtenaye, and Elizabeth with him, is sent at once to the Tower.