In spite of the determination, boldness and assurance with which the plot had been laid, the conspirators were mistaken in the measure of the national discontent. Even the Devonshire men, supposed to be staunch adherents of Courtenay’s house, were apathetic, and when it became apparent that the young Earl would fail to come himself and lead them, their last spark of enthusiasm died out. The Earl of Bedford, who was sent against them, took a few of the leaders prisoners, Carew with some of his companions escaping to France. Sir James Croft was closely pursued, when he left London to spread revolt among his tenantry on the banks of the Severn, and before one seditious word could be uttered, his designs were nipped in the bud. He was arrested in his bed and conveyed to the Tower. The part taken by the Duke of Suffolk was particularly odious. If he displayed a less craven spirit than Courtenay, his ingratitude for past favours was far more glaring. The principal mover after Northumberland, in the plot to deprive Mary of the Crown, he had been freely and frankly forgiven, after only three days’ imprisonment, being permitted to suffer for his treason neither in body nor estate. So great moreover was the distinction accorded to his wife by Mary, that the Queen sometimes gave her precedence over her own sister; and if his daughter and her husband were still captives, it was owing to the fact of the disturbed state of London, and its neighbourhood, the direct result of his own and his friends’ treachery. There is little doubt that there had been no further movement to raise the Lady Jane to the throne, and had her father remained faithful, although sentence of death had been passed on her, she would shortly with her husband have regained complete liberty. None suspected Suffolk’s fidelity, for with consummate deceit, the Duke feigned the deepest attachment to the person of the Queen, giving repeated assurances of the same, and of his approval of her marriage. So entirely was Mary deceived, that it was thought she contemplated placing him at the head of her troops.[395] The following account of his departure for the Midlands shows how little she doubted him:— “The 25th day of January, the Duke of Suffolk, the lord John Gray and the Lord Leonard Gray fled (from his house at Sheen). It is said that the same morning that he was going, there came a messenger to him from the Queen, that he should come to the Court. ‘Marry,’ quoth he, ‘I was coming to her Grace. Ye may see, I am booted and spurred, ready to ride, and I will but break my fast and go.’ So he gave the messenger a reward, and caused him to be made to drink, and so thence departed himself, no man knoweth whither. Sir Thomas Palmer, servant to the Earl of Arundel said on the morrow following, to a friend of his, that the complot between the French king and the said Duke of Suffolk was now come to light.”[396]