, one
"Ninian Sanders," denounced the boy to the guard, and he was seized.
Yet a misfortune, thought to be providential, in a few hours befell
Ninian Sanders. Going home to his house down the river, in the July
evening, he was overturned and drowned as he was shooting London
Bridge in his wherry; the boatmen, who were the instruments of
Providence, escaped.

[Footnote 14: Noailles.]

Nor did the party in the Tower rest their first night there with
perfect satisfaction. In the evening messengers came in from the
eastern counties with news of the Lady Mary, and with letters from
herself. She had written to Renard and Scheyfne to tell them that she
was in good hands, and for the moment was safe. She had proclaimed
herself queen. She had sent addresses to the peers, commanding them on
their allegiance to come to her; and she begged the ambassadors to
tell her instantly whether she might look for assistance from
Flanders; on the active support of the emperor, so far as she could
judge, the movements of her friends would depend.

The ambassadors sent a courier to Brussels for instructions; but,
pending Charles's judgment to the contrary, they thought they had
better leave Mary's appeal unanswered till they could see how events
would turn. There was one rumour current {p.008} indeed that she had
from ten to fifteen thousand men with her; but this they could ill
believe. For themselves, they expected every hour to hear that she had
been taken by Lord Warwick and Lord Robert Dudley, who were gone in
pursuit of her, and had been put to death.[15]

[Footnote 15: Renard to Charles V.: _Papiers d'Etat
du Cardinal Granvelle_, vol. iv.]

The lords who were with the new queen were not so confident. They were
in late consultation with the Duchess of Northumberland and the
Duchess of Suffolk, when, after nightfall, a letter was brought in to
them from Mary. The lords ordered the messenger into arrest. The seal
of the packet was broken, and the letter read aloud. It was dated the
day before, Sunday, July 9:--

"My lords," wrote Mary, "we greet you well, and have received sure
advertisement that our deceased brother the king, our late Sovereign
Lord, is departed to God's mercy; which news how they be woeful to our
heart He only knoweth to whose will and pleasure we must and do submit
us and all our wills. But in this so lamentable a case that is, to
wit, now, after his majest