24 THE CECILS
fabricated charge of treason and felony. His trial and condemnation were followed by his execution in January, 1552.
Meanwhile Cecil seems to have lost no time in ingratiating himself with Warwick, and on September, 5th, 1550, he was appointed one of the two Secretaries of State. A year later, October nth, 1551, he was knighted and sworn of the Privy Council, his brother-in-law, John Cheke, receiving the honour of knighthood at the same time.
Cecil's action at this critical time has been much discussed. The facts are clear. The secretary and right-hand man of the Protector, the most intimate member of his circle, accepted without demur, honours and office from the man who had supplanted him a man of whose sinister character and ambitions he cannot have been ignorant. Moreover, his behaviour to the statesman who had befriended and advanced him appears to have been callous in the extreme. Somerset, when he first became aware of the scheme against him, sent for Cecil " to tell him he suspected some ill " ; where- upon Cecil is said to have replied " that if he were not guilty, he might be of good courage ; it he were, he had nothing to say but to lament him." 1
This incident is said to have occurred on October i4th, three days after Cecil had been knighted and Warwick had become Duke of Northumberland. Two days later Somerset was
1 King Edward VI.'s Journal. See Ty tier's History of Edward VI. and Mary, II. 4.
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