r most devilish enterprise, and will by no
means be persuaded the contrary but that it is for
the commonweal of all the realm."--Cheyne to the
Council: _MS. Mary, Domestic_, vol. iii.]

[Footnote 225: Cowling Castle, a place already
famous in English Reforming history as the
residence of Sir John Oldcastle.]

[Footnote 226: He contrived to send a letter to the
queen the evening of the day on which his house was
taken. After describing the scene, he added: "If
your Grace will assemble forces in convenient
numbers, they not being above 2000 men, and yet not
500 of them able and good armed men, but rascals
and rakehells such as live by spoil, I doubt not
but your Grace shall have the victory."--Cobham to
the Queen: _MS. State Paper Office_. But Cobham
under-estimated the numbers, and undervalued the
composition of Wyatt's forces, perhaps
intentionally. Renard, who is generally accurate,
says that the rebels at this time amounted to three
thousand; Noailles says, twelve or fifteen
thousand.]

Mary's situation was now really alarming: she was without money,
notwithstanding the Jews; she had no troops; of all her ministers
Paget alone was sincerely anxious to do her service; for Gardiner, on
the subject of the marriage, was as unwilling as ever. It was rumoured
that the King of Denmark intended to unite with the French in support
of the revolutionists, and Renard began calmly to calculate that,
should this report prove {p.097} true, the queen could not be saved.
Pembroke and Clinton offered to raise another force in the city and
fight Wyatt; but, so far as Mary could tell, they would be as likely
to turn against her as to fight in her defence; and she declined their
services. Renard offered Gardiner assistance from the Low
Countries--Gardiner replied with extreme coldness that he had no
desire to see Flemish soldiers in England--and the council generally
were "so strange" in their manner, and so languid in their action,
that the ambassador could not assure himself that they were not
Wyatt's real instigators. Not a man had been rais