s. It does not seem that the countess thought at any time of
reviving her own pretensions; it does seem that she was ready to build a
throne for the Princess Mary out of the ruined supporters of her father's
family. The power which she could wield might at any moment become
formidable. She had two sons in England, Lord Montague and Sir Geoffrey
Pole. Her cousin, the Marquis of Exeter, a grandson himself of Edward
IV.,[661] was, with the exception of the Duke of Norfolk, the most powerful
nobleman in the realm; and he, to judge by events, was beginning to look
coldly on the king.[662] We find her surrounded also by the representatives
of her mother's family--Lord Abergavenny, who had been under suspicion when
the Duke of Buckingham was executed, Sir Edward Neville, afterwards
executed, Lord Latimer, Sir George and Sir William Neville, all of them
were her near connections, all collateral heirs of the King-maker,
inheriting the pride of their birth, and resentfully conscious of their
fallen fortunes. The support of a party so composed would have added
formidable strength to the preaching friars of the Nun of Kent; and as I
cannot doubt that the Nun was endeavouring to press her intrigues in a
quarter where disaffection if created would be most dangerous, so the lady
who ruled this party with a patriarchal authority had listened to her
suggestions; and the repeated interviews with her which were sought by the
Marchioness of Exeter were rendered more than suspicious by the secresy
with which these interviews were conducted.[663]

These circumstances explain the arrest, to which I alluded above, of Sir
William and Sir George Neville, brothers of Lord Latimer. They were not
among "the many noblemen" to whom the commissioners referred; for their
confessions remain, and contain no allusion to the Nun; but they were
examined at this particular time on general suspicion; and the arrest,
under such circumstances, of two near relatives of Lady Salisbury,
indicates clearly an alarm in the council, lest she might be contemplating
some serious movements. At any rate, either on her account or on their own,
the Nevilles fell under suspicion, and while they had no crimes to reveal,
their depositions, especially that of Sir William Neville, furnish singular
evidence of the temper of the times.

The confession of the latter begins with an account of the loss of certain
silver spoons, for the recovery of which Sir William sent to a wizard wh