thousand men into the field, but they would desert when led
out, and there was nothing to fear from them. Whether Southwell and
Cobham would act openly on Wyatt's side was the chief uncertainty; it
was feared that Southwell might desire to keep within the limits of
loyal opposition; Cobham offered to send his sons, but "the sending of
sons," some member of the meeting said, "was the casting away of the
Duke of Northumberland; their lives were as dear to them as my Lord
Cobham's was to him; let him come himself and set his foot by
them."[212] The result of the conference was a determination to make
the venture. Thursday the 25th was the day agreed on for the rising,
and the gentlemen present went in their several directions to prepare
the people.

[Footnote 211: Confession of Anthony Norton: _MS.
Mary, Domestic_, vol. iii. State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 212: Confession of Anthony Norton: _MS.
Mary, Domestic_, vol. iii. State Paper Office.]

Meantime Gardiner was following the track which Courtenay had opened.
He knew generally the leaders of the conspiracy, yet uncertain, in the
universal perplexity, how any one would act, he knew not whom to
trust. To send Courtenay out of the way, he allowed a project to be
set on foot for despatching him on an embassy to Brussels (January
23); and anxious, perhaps, not to alarm Mary too much, he simply told
her what she and Renard knew already, that treasonable designs were on
foot to make Elizabeth queen. In a conversation about Elizabeth the
chancellor agreed with Renard that it would be well to arrest her
without delay. "Were but the emperor in England," Gardiner said, "she
would be disposed of with little difficulty."[213] Unfortunately, the
spies had as yet detected no cause for suspicion on which the
government could act legitimately.

[Footnote 213: Renard to Charles V.: _Rolls House
MSS._]

Mary, ignorant that she was in immediate danger, and only vaguely
uneasy, looked to Philip's coming as the cure of her discomforts. "Let
the prince come," she said to Renard, "and all will be well." She said
she would raise eight thousand men and keep them in London as his
guard and hers; she would send a fleet into the Channel and sweep the
French into their harbours; only let him come before Lent, which was
now but a fortnight distant: "give him my affectionate love," sh