Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 Quéene Marie séeing no likelihood,Q. Marie pens [...]e for the los [...]e of Calis. nor hauing anie hope of the restitution of Calis, and considering also that most of hir affaires had but hard successe, conceiued an inward sorrow of mind: by reason whereof about September next she fell sicke of a hot burning feauer, which sicknesse was common that yeare through all the realme, and consumed a mar|uellous number, as well noblemen, as bishops, iud|ges, knights, gentlemen, and rich farmers: but most of the cleargie, and other ancient and graue persons. In which while the quéene laie languishing of a long sicknesse,The death of quéen Marie and so continued vntill the seuentéenth of Nouember next betwéene the houres of fiue or six in the morning, and then ended hir life in this world, at hir house of saint Iames besides Westminster, when she had reigned fiue years, foure moneths, and eleuen daies, and in the three and fortith yeare of hir bodilie age. The death of this said queene made a maruellous alteration in this realme, namelie in the case of religion, which like as by the death of king Edward the sixt it suffered a change from the e|stablishment of his time: so by the death of this quéene it returned into the former estate againe. So that we sée the vncerteintie of the world, and what changes doo come in times by their reuolutions, and that euerie thing is subiect to vnconstancie, and nothing frée from variablenesse; as the poet saith:

—nihil vsquam

Perpetuum solet in terris fixúmque manere:

Humanis quàm nulla subest constantia rebus!

And heere, bicause we are come to the knitting vp of quéene Maries reigne, I cannot ouers [...]p with si|lence that notable and néedfull discourse of master Fox concerning our blessed souereigne, quéen Eliza|beth, whose maiestie the Lord of his mercie inuiron with fréends as in number manie, so in seruice tru|stie; and whose enimies the same Lord in iustice root out from the land of the liuing, heaping vpon them plague after plague, to their vtter confusion, bicause they haue reiected the gratious means of their con|uersion. Thus therefore writeth master Fox concer|ning the mischéefous persecution and miraculous preseruation of ladie Elizabeth, now quéene of Eng|land, from extreame calamitie and danger of life, in the time of queene Marie hir sister.

But (saith master Fox) when all hath béene said and told,The blessed protection of almightie God in preser|uing the ladi [...] Elizabeth in hir manifold dangers and troubles. whatsoeuer can be recited touching the admira|ble working of Gods present hand in defending and deliuering anie one person out of thraldome, neuer was there since the memorie of our fathers, anie ex|ample to be shewed, wherin the Lords mightie power hath more admirablie and blessedlie shewed it selfe, to the glorie of his owne name, to the comfort of all good hearts, and to the publike felicitie of this whole realme, than in the miraculous custodie and outscape of this our souereigne ladie, now quéene, then ladie Elizabeth, in the strict time of queene Marie hir sister. In which storie, first we haue to consider in what extreame miserie, sicknesse, feare, and perill hir highnesse was; into what care, what trouble of mind,The trouble [...] of ladie Eli|zabeth in Q. Maries [...] and what danger of death she was brought. First with great routs and bands of armed men (and hap|pie was he that might haue the carrieng of hir) be|ing fetched vp as the greatest traitour in the world, clapped in the tower, and againe tossed from thence, from house to house, from prison to prison, from post to piller, at length also prisoner in hir owne house, and garded with a sort of cut-throats, which euer EEBO page image 1152 gaped for the spoile, whereby they might be fingering of somewhat.