Mary, still full of her renewed hope of maternity, which all but herself knew was piteously fallacious, received the news courageously and set to work to reinforce the town. Pembroke was ordered to raise five thousand men and cross at once to Philip’s harbour of Dunkirk, whence Calais might be reached by land. Unfortunately, the English town of Guisnes, near Calais, was in as perilous a condition as Calais itself, and Lord Grey de Wilton, the Commander, found himself, as he says, “clean cut off from all aid and relief. I have looked for both out of England and Calais, and know not how to have help by any means, either of men or victuals. There resteth now none other way for the succour of Calais, but a power of men out of England or from the King’s Majesty or both.”[116] Alas! the King’s Majesty himself had now few fit troops to meet Guise’s veterans. His demoralised army, scattered wide in winter quarters through Flanders, were difficult to collect rapidly, and Lords Wentworth and Grey de Wilton in vain sent daily beseeching letters to Philip to come to their aid, as Guise pressed Calais and Guisnes more closely. Calais particularly was crowded with traitors and enemies of the Spaniard, anxious to deliver the place to the French; and, although the English troops repulsed one attempt to storm the town on the 6th January, it cheerfully surrendered to the besiegers two days later; and Guisnes fell with but little more resistance directly afterwards.[117] The news fell like an aerolite upon the English Queen and nation. The possession of Calais had been regarded for centuries as the keystone to England’s commercial prosperity and political importance in Europe, and the surrender of the last foothold in France seemed a loss irreparable. That it should have been lost in a war undertaken on behalf of the Queen’s Spanish Consort, whilst he with a great though scattered force was in the immediate neighbourhood, added bitterness to the humiliation; and the Count de Feria, foreseeing the storm of anger that in England would greet the news, tarried a day or two in Dunkirk rather than cross the Channel with the sinister tidings. His first mission had been to induce the English Council to send forces to defend Calais and Guisnes, but he knew full well that behind this demand there was the need for English forces again to aid his master in the coming campaign; so, interpreting his instructions freely, he determined to proceed on his journey and turn his request into one for troops to recover the fortresses with the King’s help.