e was no admission for him. Whilst he
was hesitating what course to pursue, a messenger came in to say that
the Earl of Huntingdon was at Warwick. The plot for the revolt of the
garrison had been detected, and the whole country was on the alert.
The people had no desire to see the Spaniards in England; but sober,
quiet farmers and burgesses would not rise at the call of the friend
of Northumberland, and assist in bringing back the evil days of
anarchy.

The Greys had now only to provide for their personal safety.

Suffolk had an estate a few miles distant, called Astley Park, to
which the party retreated from Coventry. There the duke shared such
money as he had with him among his men, and bade them shift for
themselves. Lord Thomas Grey changed coats {p.102} with a servant,
and rode off to Wales to join Sir James Crofts. Suffolk himself, who
was ill, took refuge with his brother, Lord John, in the cottage of
one of his gamekeepers, where they hoped to remain hidden till the hue
and cry should be over, and they could escape abroad.

The cottage was considered insecure. Two bowshots south of Astley
Church there stood in the park an old decaying tree, in the hollow of
which the father of Lady Jane Grey concealed himself; and there, for
two winter days and a night, he was left without food. A proclamation
had been put out by Huntingdon for Suffolk's apprehension (January
30), and the keeper, either tempted by the reward, or frightened by
the menace against all who should give him shelter, broke his trust--a
rare example of disloyalty--and going to Warwick Castle, undertook to
betray his master's hiding-place. A party of troopers were despatched,
with the keeper for a guide; and, on arriving at Astley, they found
that the duke, unable to endure the cold and hunger longer, had
crawled out of the tree, and was warming himself by the cottage fire.
Lord John was discovered buried under some bundles of hay.[235] They
were carried off at once to the Tower, whither Lord Thomas Grey and
Sir James Crofts, who had failed as signally in Wales, soon after
followed them.[236]

[Footnote 235: Renard to the Emperor: _Rolls House
MSS._]

[Footnote 236: I follow Baoardo in the account of
the duke's capture. Renard says that he was found
in the tree by a little dog: "qu'a este grand
commencement du miracle pour le succes pro