round between them, representing the
wafer.

More serious were the doings of a part of the late conspirators who
had escaped to France. Peter Carew, when he left Weymouth, promised
soon to return, and he was received at Paris with a cordiality that
answered his warmest hopes. Determined, if possible, to prevent Philip
from reaching England, the French had equipped every vessel which they
possessed available for sea, and Carew was sent again to the coast of
the Channel to tempt across into the French service all those who,
like himself, were compromised in the conspiracy, or whose blood was
hotter than their fathers'. Every day the queen was chafed with the
news of desertions to their dangerous rendezvous. Young men of
honourable families, Pickerings, Strangways's, Killegrews, Staffords,
Stauntons, Tremaynes, Courtenays, slipped over the water, carrying
with them hardy sailors from the western harbours. The French supplied
them with arms, ships, and money; and fast-sailing, heavily-armed
privateers, officered by these young adventurers in the cause of
freedom, were cruising on their own account, plundering Flemish and
Spanish ships, and swearing that the Prince of Spain should set no
foot on English shores.[280]

[Footnote 280: The French and Calais correspondence
in the State Paper Office contains a vast number of
letters on this subject. The following extracts are
specimens:--

On the 24th of March Thomas Corry writes to Lord
Grey that "two hundred vessels be in readiness" in
the French harbours. "There is lately arrived at
Caen in Normandy Sir Peter Carew, Sir William
Pickering, Sir Edward Courtenay, John Courtenay,
Brian Fitzwilliam, and divers other English
gentlemen. It is thought Sir Peter Carew shall have
charge of the fleet. There be three ships of
Englishmen, which be already gone to sea with
Killegrew, which do report that they serve the king
to prevent the coming of the King of
Spain."--_Calais MSS._

On the 28th of March, Edgar Hormolden writes from
Guisnes to Sir John Bourne: "The number of Sir
Peter Carew's retinue increaseth in France by the