Feb. 3.On the 3rd of February he was at Pomfret. He was instructed to respect literally the terms of the pardon, but to punish promptly all offences committed since the issue of it. By the gentlemen he was eagerly welcomed, 'being,' he wrote, 'in the greatest fear of the people that I ever saw men.'[1] The East Riding was tolerably quiet; but to the north all was in confusion. The Earl of Westmoreland was in London. The countess was labouring to keep order, 'playing the part rather of a knight than of a lady,' but with imperfect success. The Countess of Northumberland had also exerted herself nobly. But 'there was never so much need of help as now,' wrote Sir Thomas Tempest to Norfolk, 'Northumberland is wholly out of rule; and without order to be taken in Tyndal and Redesdale, all mischief shall go at large. The barony of Langley and Hexhamshire, taking example by them, be almost as evil as they be.'[2] Feb. 4.Similar information came in from Richmond and the Dales, and Westmoreland was in worse condition than either. In place of the disciplined army which had been at Doncaster, an armed mob was spread over the country, pillaging and burning. Happily the latter form of evil was the more easy to deal with. 'The gentlemen be in such terror,' Norfolk said, 'that they be afraid to move for
- ↑ Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Sussex: State Papers, vol. i. p. 534.
- ↑ MS. State Paper Office, first series, vol. iv.
all the world shall think them the more worthy punishment for that they have so little regarded the clemency of his Highness calling them from their evil doings to honest preferment.'—Hardwicke State Papers, p. 33.
