ds
sent out to oppose him, went over to him in a body under Bret, their
captain; the guards, almost the only regular troops in the kingdom, were
chiefly protestants, and therefore little trusted by the queen; and it
was known that the inhabitants of the metropolis, for which he was in
full march, were in their hearts inclined to his cause.

It was pretty well ascertained that the earl of Devonshire had received
an invitation to join the western insurgents; and though he appeared to
have rejected the proposal, he was arbitrarily remanded to his ancient
abode in the Tower.

Elizabeth was naturally regarded under all these circumstances of alarm
with extreme jealousy and suspicion. It was well known that her present
compliance with the religion of the court was merely prudential; that
she was the only hope of the protestant party, a party equally
formidable by zeal and by numbers, and which it was resolved to crush;
it was more than suspected, that though Wyat himself still professed an
inviolable fidelity to the person of the reigning sovereign, and
strenuously declared the Spanish match to be the sole grievance against
which he had taken arms, many of his partisans had been led by their
religious zeal to entertain the further view of dethroning the queen, in
favor of her sister, whom they desired to marry to the earl of
Devonshire. It was not proved that the princess herself had given any
encouragement to these designs; but sir James Croft, an adherent of
Wyat's, had lately visited Ashridge, and held conferences with some of
her attendants; and it had since been rumored that she was projecting a
removal to her manor of Donnington castle in Berkshire, on the south
side of the Thames, where nothing but a day's march through an open
country would be interposed between her residence and the station of the
Kentish rebels.

Policy seemed now to dictate the precaution of securing her person; and
the queen addressed to her accordingly the following letter.

* * * * *

"Right dear and entirely beloved sister,

"We greet you well: And whereas certain evil-disposed persons, minding
more the satisfaction of their own malicious and seditious minds than
their duty of allegiance towards us, have of late foully spread divers
lewd and untrue rumours; and by that means and other devilish practises
do travail to induce our good and loving subjects to an unnatural
rebellion against God, us, and the tran