Under Mary, if there was some court servility there was also some public spirit. When the Queen created her husband Philip a knight, an obsequious herald, out of compliment to the “joint-sovereigns,” took down the arms of England in the chapel at Windsor, and was about to set up those of Spain. This, however, was forbidden “by certain lords,” and brave men they were, for in such a display of English spirit there was peril of incurring the ill-will of Mary, who was never weary of heaping favors on the foreign King-consort, whom she would have made generalissimo of her forces if she had dared. It is a curious fact that Philip was not ejected from the order, even when he had despatched the Spanish Armada to devastate the dominions of the sovereign. In illustration of the fact that the Garter never left the leg of a knight of the order, there are some lines by the Elizabethan poet Peele, which are very apt to the occasion. Speaking of the Earl of Bedford, Peele says-- --“Dead is Bedford! virtuous and renowned For arms, for honor, and religious love; And yet alive his name in Fame’s records, That held his Garter dear, and wore it well. Some worthy wight but blazon his deserts: Only a tale I thought on by the way, As I observed his honorable name. I heard it was his chance, o’erta’en with sleep, To take a nap near to a farmer’s lodge. Trusted a little with himself belike, This aged earl in his apparel plain, Wrapt in his russet gown, lay down to rest, His badge of honor buckled to his leg. Bare and naked. There came a pilfering swad And would have preyed upon this ornament Essayed t’ unbuckle it, thinking him asleep. The noble gentleman, feeling what he meant-- ‘Hold, foolish lad,’ quoth he, ‘a better prey: ‘This Garter is not fit for ev’ry leg, ‘And I account it better than my purse. The varlet ran away, the earl awaked. And told his friends, and smiling said withal, ‘’A would not, had ’a understood the French ‘Writ on my Garter, dared t’ have stol’n the same.’ This tale I thought upon, told me for truth, The rather for it praised the Posy, Right grave and honorable, that importeth much-- ‘Evil be to him,’ it saith, ‘that evil thinks.’”