The catastrophe came like a thunderbolt, less than two weeks after Marillac had written this letter. An entry in the Journal of the House of Lords on June 10 reads: ‘Hodie Vicegerens Regius ... Comes Essex in hora pomeridiana per Dominum Cancellarium et alios Dominos in Arcano Domini Nostri Regis Consilio, ex Palatio Regio Domini Regis _Westm._ hora tertia pomeridiana super Accusationem Criminis lese Majestatis missus est in Arcem _Londinens_[707].’ This bald statement is confirmed by letters from Marillac to Francis and Montmorency at the time[708], but a much more striking account of the arrest is contained in another letter from the French ambassador to the Constable, written two weeks later. It tells us that ‘as soon as the Captain of the Guard declared his charge to make him prisoner, Cromwell in a rage cast his bonnet on the ground, saying to the Duke of Norfolk and others of the Privy Council assembled there, that this was the reward of his services, and that he appealed to their consciences as to whether he was a traitor: but since he was treated thus he renounced all pardon, as he had never thought to have offended, and only asked the King not to make him languish long. Thereupon some said he was a traitor, others that he should be judged according to the laws he had made, which were so sanguinary that often words spoken inadvertently with good intention had been constituted high treason. The Duke of Norfolk, having reproached him with some “villennyes” done by him, snatched off the order of St. George, which he bore on his neck, and the Admiral, to show himself as great an enemy in adversity as he had been thought a friend in prosperity, untied the Garter. Then by a door which opens upon the water, he was put in a boat and taken to the Tower, without the people of this town suspecting it, until they saw all the King’s archers under Mr. Cheyney at the door of the suspected prisoner’s house, where they made an inventory of his goods which were not of such value as people thought, although too much for a “compaignon de telle estoffe.” The money was £7,000, equal to 28,000 crs., and the silver plate, including crosses, chalices, and other spoils of the Church, might be as much more. These moveables were before night taken to the King’s treasury, a sign that they will not be restored[709].’