Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/469

1549.] part, to join with him, yea, and with all my heart to serve under him, as I would be to have the whole authority myself. I would wish that no man, for one mischance or evil hap, to which all be subject, should be utterly abject.' Without waiting for an answer, and leaving the Germans' to follow, he hastened to Cambridge, whither Northampton had retired, taking with him his sons Lord Ambrose and Lord Robert, Sir Thomas Palmer, Sir Marmaduke Constable, and a few other gentlemen. Rallying the remains of Northampton's force, he made at once for Norfolk. He reached Wymondham on the 22nd of August; on the 23rd he was before the gates of Norwich; and for the third time Norroy Herald carried in the offer of a free pardon, with an intimation that it was made for the last time.

Ket had at length learnt some degree of prudence, and was inclined to be satisfied with his success. He allowed the herald to read the proclamation in all parts of the town and camp, he himself standing at his side; and he had made up his mind to return with him and have an interview with Warwick, when an unlucky urchin who was present flung himself into an English attitude of impertinence, 'with words as unseemly as his gesture was filthy.' Some one, perhaps a servant of the herald, levelled his harquebuse, and shot 'that ungracious boy through the body.' A cut with a whip might have been endured or approved; at the needless