council, that her comptroller might shortly return ; for, said she, since his departing, I take the accounts myself of ray expenecs, and learned how many loaves of bread be made of a bushel of wheat, and I wiss my father and mother never brought me up with baking and brewing, and to be plain with you, 1 am weary of mine office, and therefore, if my lords will send mine officer home, they shall do me pleasure ; otherwise, if they will send him to prison, I bcshrew him if he go not to it merrily, and with a good will, and I pray God to send you to it well, in your souls and bodies too, fur some of you have but weak bodies." Stung by the Princess's wit and sarcasm, the deputation departed, with a resolution, as persuasion had failed, to effect their object by force. However, they afterwards, it would appear, thought better of the matter ; as, according to Burnet and other authorities, " The Lady Mary continued to keep her priests and have mass, but so secretly, that there was no ground for any public complaint." Indeed, we find, no further mention of her religious obstinacy till the subsequent September, when the zealous ltidley, Bishop of London, went from his adjacent seat at Hadham to Hunsdon, where she there was, to pay a pastoral visit. He was graciously entertained by her officers till eleven o'clock, when she came forth into her presence chamber; thcBishop then saluted her, and told her that he had come to pay his respects to her. She received him with courtesy, and chatted with him familiarly for a quarter of an hour, and then dismissed him to dine with her officers. After dinner, he told her he not only came to do his duty by her as her diocesan, but also to offer to preach before her next Sunday. At this Mary's countenance changed, and after a lengthened pause, she said, "My Lord, as for this matter, I pray you make the answer to it yourself." "Madam," rejoined the Bishop, "considering my office and calling, I am bound in duty to make your Grace this offer to preach before you." " Well." answered Mary, " if it must | be so, the door of the parish church ad joining shall be open for you, if you come, and you may pi each if you pb ase, but neither I nor any of mine shall hear you." " I trust, madam, you will not refuse to hear God's word ?" said the Bishop. " I cannot tell," retorted Mary, " what you call God's word; that is not God's word now, that was God's word in my father's days." " God's word is the same at all times," replied Ridley, "but hath been better understood and practised in some ages than others." " You durst not, for your ears, have avowed your present faith in my father's days," rejoined Mary ; " and as for your new books, I thank God 1 never have and never will read them," She then spoke reproachfully of tho established religion and the government, and asked Ridley if he were one of the council. He said he was not. "You might well enough be," said she, "as the council goes now-a-days." She then dismissed him with these words, " My Lord, for your kindness in coming to sec me, I thank you ; but for your offering to preach before me, I thank you not a whit." The Bishop, at the moment of his departure, went with Sir Thomas Wharton, the steward of the household, to the cellar, and partook of wine, but the instant after taking it, he exclaimed, "Surely, I have done amiss." "How so?" quoth Sir Thomas. " I have drank," said he, "under a roof, where God's word hath been rejected ; when if 1 had remembered my duty, I ought to have shaken the dust off my feet aa a testimony against this house," and instantly departed. He then rode off, leaving those who heard his vehement denunciations in such a state of alarm, that their hair stood on end, and their countenances became deadly white.* * Had Mary and Ridley lived in a more enlightened, charitable age, they btiin^ pure in life, and sincere in principle, would have tolerated differences of opinion out of respect to each other's virtues ; but in those crimestaintid times, toleration was unknown, and in too many instances, both Catholics and Protestants took afierce delight in shedding