own into the water.

Noailles, for the first time, believed now that the insurrection would
fail. Success or failure, in fact, would turn on the reception which
the midland counties had given to the Duke of Suffolk; and of Suffolk
authentic news had been brought to London that morning.

{p.100} On the flight of the duke being known at the court, it was
supposed immediately that he intended to proclaim his daughter and
Guilford Dudley. Rumour, indeed, turned the supposition into
fact,[233] and declared that he had called on the country to rise in
arms for Queen Jane. But Suffolk's plan was identical with Wyatt's; he
had carried with him a duplicate of Wyatt's proclamation, and,
accompanied by his brother, he presented himself in the market-place
at Leicester on the morning of Monday the 29th. Lord Huntingdon had
followed close upon his track from London; but he assured the Mayor of
Leicester that the Earl of Huntingdon was coming, not to oppose, but
to join with him. No harm was intended to the queen; he was ready to
die in her defence; his object was only to save England from the
dominion of foreigners.

[Footnote 233: "The Duke has raised evil-disposed
persons, minding her Grace's destruction, and to
advance the Lady Jane, his daughter, and Guilford
Dudley, her husband."--Royal Proclamation: _MS.
State Paper Office_. Printed in the additional
Notes to Mr. Nichols's _Chronicle of Queen Mary_.
Baoardo says that the duke actually proclaimed Lady
Jane.]

In consequence of these protestations, he was allowed to read his
proclamation; the people were indifferent; but he called about him a
few scores of his tenants and retainers from his own estates in the
country; and, on Tuesday morning, while the insurgents in Kent were
attacking Cowling Castle, Suffolk rode out of Leicester, in full
armour, at the head of his troops, intending first to move on
Coventry, then to take Kenilworth and Warwick, and so to advance on
London. The garrison at Warwick had been tampered with, and was
reported to be ready to rise. The gates of Coventry he expected to
find open. He had sent his proclamation thither the day before, by a
servant, and he had friends within the walls who had undertaken to
place the town at his disposal.

The state of Coventry was probably the state of most other town