Renard demurred. He said, what was probably true, that it was to be feared that the alleged contract of marriage had been invented to save Lady Jane; and it would be necessary at the least to keep her a prisoner, since many inconveniences might be expected were she set at liberty. To this Mary agreed, promising that her cousin should not be liberated without all precautions necessary to ensure that no ill results would follow.[199]
This interview must have taken place shortly before Northumberland’s death; for on August 23 the Emperor, to whom it had been duly reported, was replying by a reiteration of his opinion that all those who had conspired against the Queen, as well as any concerned in Edward’s death, should be chastised without mercy. He advised that the executions should take place simultaneously, so that the pardon of the less guilty should follow without delay. If Mary was unable to resolve to put “Jeanne de Suffolck” to death, she ought at least to relegate her to some place of security, where she could be kept under supervision and rendered incapable of causing trouble in the realm.
That Mary had decided upon this course is clear, and there is no reason to believe that Lady Jane would have suffered death had it not been for her father’s subsequent conduct. In the meantime, she remained a prisoner in the Tower, and on August 29, eleven days after the executions on Tower Hill, she is shown to us in one of the rare pictures left of her during the time of her captivity. On that day--a Tuesday--the diarist in the Tower, admitted to dine at the same table as the royal prisoner, placed upon record an account of the conversation.
Besides Lady Jane, who sat at the end of the board, there was present the narrator himself, one Partridge,[200] and his wife--it was in “Partridge’s house,” or lodging within the Tower, that the guests met--with Lady Jane’s gentlewoman and her man. Her presence had been unexpected by the diarist, as he was careful to explain, excusing his boldness in having accepted Partridge’s invitation on the score that he had not been aware that she dined below.
Lady Jane did not appear anxious to stand on her dignity. Desiring guest and host to be covered, she drank to the new-comer and made him welcome. The conversation turned, naturally enough, upon the conduct of public affairs, of which Lady Jane was inclined to take a sanguine view.