and preach before her. Mary replied that certainly the parish church would be open to him, but that he must not calculate on seeing her or her household there. He had answered that he hoped she would not refuse God's word. She answered that she did not know what they called God's word now, but certainly it was not the same as in her father's time. "God's word," rejoined Ridley, "was the same at all times, but had been better understood and practised in some ages than others." She replied, that he durst not have avowed his present faith in her father's lifetime, and asked if he were of the Council. He said he was not; and on his retiring, she thanked him for coming to see her, but not at all for his proposal to preach before her.
But not all the eloquence of Ridley, nor the terrors of Mary's bigotry, could move the people, who had a simple, strong conviction that a deed of flagrant wrong was attempted. Northumberland meantime was pursuing his melancholy march towards Framlingham. He was accompanied by his son, the Earl of Warwick, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of Huntingdon, and Lord Grey. His army amounted only to 8,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, but it was so superior in discipline and military supplies, that under ordinary circumstances, with the same vigour and address which he had formerly shown in Scotland and in Norfolk, the superior number of the enemy would have availed nothing against him. Here the circumstances were significantly different. He was no longer battling against a national foe, with a bold heart, and the hope of glory and advancement; he was fighting against his true sovereign, and everything around him or which reached his ears made him feel, moreover, that he was fighting against the convictions of the nation. Instead of the animation of the conqueror, the terrors of the traitor fell over him. At every step some expectation was falsified, or some disastrous news met him. The promised reinforcements did not arrive, but he heard of them taking the way to the camp of Mary instead of his own. He heard of the defection of the fleet; and lastly, a prostrating blow, of the Council having gone over to Queen Mary. Struck with dismay at this accumulation of evil tidings, he retreated from Bury St. Edmunds, which he had reached, to Cambridge, and there betrayed the most pitiable indecision.
Scarcely had he left London before the Council, whilst outwardly professing much activity for the interests of Queen Jane, was really at work to terminate as soon as possible the perilous farce of her Royalty. On the very evening of Sunday the 16th, on which Ridley had preached to the people, the Lord Treasurer left the Tower and made a visit to his own house, contrary to the positive order of Northumberland, who had strictly enjoined Suffolk to keep the whole Council within its walls. On the 19th the Lord Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal, the Earls of Arundel, Shrewsbury, and Pembroke, Sir Thomas Cheney, and Sir John Mason, left the Tower on the plea that it was necessary to levy forces, and to receive the French ambassador, and that Baynard's Castle, the residence of the Earl of Pembroke, was a much more convenient place for these purposes. As they professed to be actuated by zeal for the cause of his daughter, Suffolk, a very weak person, was easily duped. No sooner had they reached Baynard's Castle, than they unanimously declared for Queen Mary. They sent for the lord mayor and the aldermen, and the Earl of Arundel announced to them that the Council had resolved to proclaim Queen Mary, denouncing the opposition in no measured terms. The Earl of Pembroke starting up as he finished, and drawing his sword, exclaimed, "If the arguments of my Lord Arundel do not persuade you, this sword shall make Mary queen, or I will die in her quarrel." Shouts of applause echoed his declaration, and they all forthwith rode to St. Paul's Cross, where the garter king-at-arms, arrayed in his heraldic coat, blew his trumpet and proclaimed Mary Queen of England, France, and Ireland. This time there was no gloomy silence, but triumphant acclamations; and the whole body of nobles and civic gentlemen went in procession to St. Paul's, and together sung "Te Deum." Beer, wine, and money were distributed amongst the people, and the day was finished amid the blaze of bonfires, illuminations, and loud rejoicings.
Immediately after proclaiming the new queen, the Council sent to summon the Duke of Suffolk to surrender the Tower, which he did with all alacrity, and, proceeding to Baynard's Castle, signed the proclamations which the Council were issuing. Poor Lady Jane resigned her uneasy and unblessed crown of nine days with unfeigned joy, and the nest morning returned to Sion House. This brief period of queenship, which had been thrust upon her against her own wishes and better judgment, had been embittered not only by her own sense of injustice towards her kinswoman, the Princess Mary, and by apprehension of the consequences to herself and all her friends, but still more by the harshness and insatiate ambition of her husband and his mother. In Lady Jane's own letter to Mary from the Tower, we find that whilst in that Royal fortress, her husband, Lord Guildford, insisted on being crowned with her, which she did not think it advisable at once to accede to. A very warm altercation ensued, and she then thought she could give him the crown by Act of Parliament. On reflection, however, she felt it best to waive this question, which so much incensed her husband that he refused to go near her. His mother then upbraided her so severely that she became very ill, and imagined from her sensations that they had given her poison. In the Italian version of her own account, as preserved by Pollini and Rosso, she says that the duchess treated her very ill, "molto malamente," and with the most angry disdain. It was clearly to her a deep and bitter baptism of misery.
The Council dispatched a letter to Northumberland by Richard Rose, the herald, commanding him to disband his army and return to his allegiance to Queen Mary, under penalty of being declared a traitor. But before this reached him he had submitted himself, and in a manner the least heroic and dignified possible. On the Sunday he had induced Dr. Sandys, the vice-chancellor of the university, to preach a sermon against the title and religion of Mary. The very next day the news of the revolution at London arrived, and Northumberland proceeding to the market-place proclaimed the woman he had thus denounced, and flung up his cap as if in joy at the event, whilst the tears of grief and chagrin streamed down his face. Turning to Dr. Sandys, who was again with him, he said, "Queen Mary was a merciful woman,
