Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/45

1537.] would be regarded with grave suspicion, even if compromised by no further overt acts of disloyalty.

But it can scarcely be said that they were wholly uncompromised. Through the months of February and March a series of evidence shows Aske, Darcy, Sir Robert Constable, a gentleman named Levening, and several others, holding aloof as an isolated group, in close and continued intercourse, yet after Bigod's capture taking no part in the pacification of the country. They had repeatedly, in public and private, assured the people that the Doncaster articles must be conceded. They were in possession of information respecting the risings in Westmoreland and Cleveland, and yet gave no information to the Government. In an intercepted letter to Lord Darcy, Aske spoke of himself as having accomplished a great enterprise—'as having played his part, and all England should perceive it.' It was proved that Darcy, when commanded in January to furnish Pomfret with stores, had repeated his former neglect—that he and Aske were still in secret possession of cannon belonging to the Government, which they had appropriated in the rebellion, and had not restored—that Aske had interfered with the authorities at Hull to prevent the punishment of traitors taken in arms —that Constable, in a letter to Bigod, told him that he had chosen a wrong time of the year, that he ought to have waited