The loss of Calais was unquestionably a serious blow to the prestige of Mary. Already people were grumbling that this was what she and her Spanish husband had brought the nation to. Here was this haughty Count of Feria, too: what had he come over for but to carry some more English money out of the country to feed Philip’s armies? This, of course, had no foundation whatever in truth, but the mere whispering of it made people stay away from the Catholic churches, and frown more sourly at the persecutions than they had done before. So far from carrying English money out, except to pay for the recruiting of the German mercenaries, whom Philip all along, however, meant to use for his own purposes, the Councillors to a man began dunning Feria for their unpaid Spanish pensions;[120] for although the Spaniard scornfully complains of their unwillingness to serve Philip’s interests first, they were all anxious for his money. The fear of invasion, which was, in fact, very remote, was industriously promoted by Feria and the Spaniards in order to keep the English Council up to their determination in raising forces which might be, and were, subsequently used by Philip for his own purposes when his summer campaign opened. These forces, however, did not satisfy Philip, who was somewhat chagrined to find that the English Council was so ready to limit its efforts to the defence of the coasts, without insisting upon the recovery of Calais. He had counted upon using the national anger at the loss to bring when he most needed them a good English contingent across the Channel to join his army, though the hasty levies in January would have been worse than useless to him.