were requested to
be in attendance at the Tower chapel, where Northumberland,
Northampton, Dudley, Henry Gates, and Palmer were brought in; and,
"first kneeling down, every one of them, upon his knees, they heard
mass, saying devoutedly, with the bishop,[95] every one of them,
_Confiteor_."

[Footnote 95: Gardiner.]

"After the mass was done, the duke rose up, and looked back upon my
lord marquis, and came unto him, asking them all forgiveness, the one
after the other, upon their knees, one to another; and the one did
heartily forgive the other. And then they came, every one of them,
before the altar, every one of them kneeling, and confessing to the
bishop that they were the same men in the faith according as they had
confessed to him before, and that they all would die in the Catholic
faith." When they had all received the sacrament, they rose and turned
to the people, and the duke said:--

"Truly, good people, I profess here before you all, that I have
received the sacrament according to the true Catholic faith: and the
plague that is upon the realm and upon us now is that we have erred
from the faith these sixteen years; and this I protest unto you all
from the bottom of my heart."

Northampton, with the rest, "did affirm the same with weeping
tears."[96]

[Footnote 96: _Harleian MSS._ 284. Compare the
account of the chronicler, _Queen Jane and Queen
Mary_, pp. 18, 19.]

Among the spectators were observed the sons of the Duke of Somerset.

In exhibiting to the world the humiliation of the professors of the
gospel, the Catholic party enjoyed a pardonable triumph.
Northumberland, in playing a part in the pageant, was hoping to save
his wretched life. When it was over he wrote (August 22) a passionate
appeal to Arundel.

{p.043} "Alas, my lord," he said, "is my crime so heinous as no
redemption but my blood can wash away the spots thereof? An old
proverb there is, and that most true--A living dog is better than a
dead lion; oh that it would please her good grace to give me life,
yea, the life of a dog, if I might but live and kiss her feet, and
spend both life and all in her honourable service."

But Arundel could not save him--would not have saved him, perhaps, had
he been able--and he had only to face the end with such resolution as
he could command.

The next morning, at nine o'clock, Warwick and Sir John Gates heard
mass in t