at had been
made in the last King Edward's reign. They began their proceedings, in
violation of the law, by having the old mass said before them in Latin,
and by turning out a bishop who would not kneel down. They also declared
guilty of treason, Lady Jane Grey for aspiring to the Crown; her husband,
for being her husband; and Cranmer, for not believing in the mass
aforesaid. They then prayed the Queen graciously to choose a husband for
herself, as soon as might be.

Now, the question who should be the Queen's husband had given rise to a
great deal of discussion, and to several contending parties. Some said
Cardinal Pole was the man--but the Queen was of opinion that he was _not_
the man, he being too old and too much of a student. Others said that
the gallant young COURTENAY, whom the Queen had made Earl of Devonshire,
was the man--and the Queen thought so too, for a while; but she changed
her mind. At last it appeared that PHILIP, PRINCE OF SPAIN, was
certainly the man--though certainly not the people's man; for they
detested the idea of such a marriage from the beginning to the end, and
murmured that the Spaniard would establish in England, by the aid of
foreign soldiers, the worst abuses of the Popish religion, and even the
terrible Inquisition itself.

These discontents gave rise to a conspiracy for marrying young Courtenay
to the Princess Elizabeth, and setting them up, with popular tumults all
over the kingdom, against the Queen. This was discovered in time by
Gardiner; but in Kent, the old bold county, the people rose in their old
bold way. SIR THOMAS WYAT, a man of great daring, was their leader. He
raised his standard at Maidstone, marched on to Rochester, established
himself in the old castle there, and prepared to hold out against the
Duke of Norfolk, who came against him with a party of the Queen's guards,
and a body of five hundred London men. The London men, however, were all
for Elizabeth, and not at all for Mary. They declared, under the castle
walls, for Wyat; the Duke retreated; and Wyat came on to Deptford, at the
head of fifteen thousand men.

But these, in their turn, fell away. When he came to Southwark, there
were only two thousand left. Not dismayed by finding the London citizens
in arms, and the guns at the Tower ready to oppose his crossing the river
there, Wyat led them off to Kingston-upon-Thames, intending to cross the
bridge that he knew to be in that place, and so to work h