agog stood as warders on
London Bridge, and there were the usual pageants in the city. Renard
conceived that the impression produced by Philip had been rather
favourable than otherwise; for the people had been taught to expect
some monster but partially human, and they saw instead a well-dressed
cavalier, who had learnt by this time to carry his hand to his bonnet.
Yet, although there were no open signs of ill-feeling, the day did not
end without a disagreeable incident. The conduit in Gracechurch Street
had been newly decorated: "the nine Worthies" had been painted round
the winding turret, and among them were Henry VIII. and Edward. The
first seven carried maces, swords, or pole-axes. Henry held in one
hand a sceptre, in the other he was presenting a book to his son, on
which was written _Verbum Dei_. As the train went by, the unwelcome
figure caught the eye of Gardiner. The painter was summoned, called
"knave, traitor, heretic," an enemy to the queen's Catholic
proceedings. The offensive Bible was washed out, and a pair of gloves
inserted in its place.[365]

[Footnote 365: _Chronicle of Queen Mary._
Contemporary Narrative: _MS. Harleian_, 419.]

Nor did the irritation of the people abate. The Spaniards, being
without special occupation, were seen much in the streets; and a vague
fear so magnified their numbers that four of them, it was thought,
were to be met in London for one Englishman.[366] {p.154} The halls
of the city companies were given up for their use; a fresh provocation
to people who desired to be provoked. A Spanish friar was lodged at
Lambeth, and it was said at once he was to be Archbishop of
Canterbury; at the beginning of September twelve thousand Spanish
troops were reported to be coming to "fetch the crown." Rumour and
reality inflated each other. The peers, who had collected for the
marriage, dispersed to their counties; and on the 10th of September,
Pembroke, Shrewsbury, and Westmoreland were believed to have raised a
standard of revolt at York. Frays were continually breaking out in the
streets, and there was a scandalous brawl in the cloisters at
Westminster. Brief entries in diaries and council books tell
continually of Englishmen killed, and Spaniards hanged, hanged at
Tyburn, or hanged more conspicuously at Charing Cross; and on the
12th, Noailles reported that the feeling in all classes, high and low,
was as bad as possible.

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