uprising to depose the bloodthirsty
tyrant, the enemy of the Church, the persecutor of his people.
Strangely enough his people did, and even desired, nothing of the
sort. Popular discontent existed only in the imagination of his
enemies; Henry retained to the last his hold over the mind of his
people. Never had they been called to pay such a series of loans,
subsidies and benevolences; never did they pay them so cheerfully. The
King set a royal example by coining his plate and mortgaging his
estates at the call of national defence; and, in the summer, he went
down in person to Portsmouth to meet the threatened invasion. The
French attack had begun on Boulogne, where Norfolk's carelessness had
put into their hands some initial advantages. But, before dawn, on the
6th of February, Hertford sallied out of Boulogne with four thousand
foot and seven hundred horse. The French commander, Marechal du Biez,
and his fourteen thousand men were surprised, and they left their (p. 414)
stores, their ammunition and their artillery in the hands of their
English foes.[1138]

[Footnote 1138: Herbert, ed. 1672, p. 589; Hall, p.
862.]

Boulogne was safe for the time, but a French fleet entered the Solent,
and effected a landing at Bembridge. Skirmishing took place in the
wooded, undulating country between the shore and the slopes of
Bembridge Down; the English retreated and broke the bridge over the
Yar. This checked the French advance, though a force which was stopped
by that puny stream could not have been very determined. A day or two
later the French sent round a party to fill their water-casks at the
brook which trickles down Shanklin Chine; it was attacked and cut to
pieces.[1139] They then proposed forcing their way into Portsmouth
Harbour, but the mill-race of the tide at its mouth, and the mysteries
of the sandbanks of Spithead deterred them; and, as a westerly breeze
sprang up, they dropped down before it along the Sussex coast. The
English had suffered a disaster by the sinking of the _Mary Rose_ with
all hands on board, an accident repeated on the same spot two
centuries later, in the loss of the _Royal George_. But the Admiral,
Lisle, followed the French, and a slight action was fought off
Shoreham; the fleets anchored for the night almost within gunshot,
but, when dawn broke, the last French ship was hull-down on the
horizon. Disease had done more than the English arms, and the French