“Thomas Canterbury, the Marquis of Winchester, John Bedford, Will. Northampton, Thomas Ely, chancellor; Northumberland, Henry Suffolk, Henry Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Cobham, R. Rich, Huntingdon, Darcy, Cheney, R. Cotton, John Gates, W. Peter, W. Cecill, John Cheeke, John Mason, Edward North, R. Bowes”.[295] The confident tone of the above letter concealed the real sentiments of the conspirators. The Duke of Suffolk had been commissioned by Northumberland to march into Norfolk, seize Mary’s person, and bring her a prisoner to London. But Jane besought her father with tears not to leave her, and Northumberland reluctantly took the command of the rebel troops himself. As they marched through Shoreditch, he observed to Sir John Gates, “The people crowd to look upon us, but not one exclaims God speed ye!”[296] He had no illusions about the attitude of the citizens, and trusted more to an eloquent and fiery appeal to their Protestantism, than to the hope of overawing them with the shadow of a sovereignty, for which they evinced undisguised contempt. Before leaving London, therefore, he charged the ministers of religion to expatiate in their sermons on the benefits to be derived from the reign of a Protestant queen, and thus work on their religious feelings. Ridley, Bishop of London, was the preacher at Paul’s Cross on the 16th July. He declaimed violently against Mary, and sought to persuade his hearers that she would bring in foreign power, and subvert all Christian religion already established. He stigmatised her religion as a “popish creed,” and herself as “the idolatrous rival” of Queen Jane. He related the story of his visit to her at Hunsdon, and remarked on the significance of her refusal to listen to his preaching, adding that “notwithstanding in all other points of civility, she showed herself gentle and tractable, yet in matters that concerned truth, faith and doctrine—so stiff and obstinate that there was no other hope of her to be conceived, but to disturb and overturn all that which with so great labours had been confirmed and planted by her brother afore”.[297] The people listened in unwonted and unsympathetic silence. They had not yet learned to associate the claims of inheritance with those of religious convictions. It would have seemed to them preposterous, that Mary should forfeit her right to reign, because she professed the religion practised by every one of her predecessors, with the single exception of Edward, who had died before escaping from tutelage. Ridley’s language was reported seditious, and when, after Mary’s proclamation, the Bishop of London hastened to Framlingham to stultify all that he had said, by laying his homage at the Queen’s feet, he was arrested at Ipswich, deprived of his dignities, and sent to the Tower.[298]