to a conclusion by bravos whom Peter Vannes was accused of having hired to assassinate him.
The chief danger arose in Kent, where Sir Thomas Wyatt, a bold and skilful leader, succeeded in collecting a considerable force at Rochester, which was shortly after augmented by 2000 men who had deserted from the standard of Lord Abergavenny near Wrotham Heath. This gathering was the response to a proclamation which he had previously (January 25) issued at Maidstone, in which Mary's supporters were denounced as aiming at the perpetual servitude of her most loving subjects. Englishmen were adjured to rise in defence of liberty and the commonwealth, while intimation was given that aid was on its way from France. With Noailles Wyatt appears actually to have been in correspondence. The Council were divided as to the course which should be pursued and distracted by mutual recriminations; while they also evinced no alacrity in taking measures for the raising of troops. Mary, whom Renard dissuaded from quitting the capital, exhibited on the other hand a courage and resolution which roused the loyal feeling of all around her. While part of the City Guard at once set out to meet the insurgents, the Corporation proceeded to arm an additional force of 500 men to follow in their track. As they approached Rochester Bridge, the Duke of Norfolk, by whom they were commanded, sent forward a herald to proclaim that "all such as wolde desyst their purpose shuld have frank and free pardon." On February 1 the Queen herself, appeared at a gathering of the citizens in the Guildhall and delivered a speech which excited general enthusiasm. Wyatt, she said, had demanded to be entrusted with the care of her person, the keeping of the Tower, and the placing of her counsellors; she was convinced that her loyal subjects would never consent that such confidence should be placed in so vile a traitor. As for her marriage, the conspirators were simply making it "a Spanish cloak to cover their pretended purpose against our religion." The Council had pronounced her marriage expedient "both for the wealth of the realm and also of you, our subjects"; should the nobility and the Commons deem it otherwise, she was willing "to abstain from marriage while she lived." Her courage and outspokenness produced a considerable effect; for two days later Noailles sent word that the populace, who had been reported to be meditating an attack on the palace and the consignment of Mary herself into Wyatt's hands, were actively occupied with putting the City into a state of defence and had mustered to the number of 25, 000 armed men. To whoever should succeed in making Wyatt a prisoner and bringing him before the Council, a reward of an annuity of one hundred pounds was held out, payable in perpetuity to himself and his descendants.
At this juncture Wyatt appeared in Southwark, but his army amounted only to some 7000 men; no force had arrived from France, while the royal army was daily receiving reinforcements. The
