Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/474

454 should be destroyed; the realm to be ruled by four governors, to be elected by the commons holding a Parliament; the commotion to begin at the south and the north seas.'

The south having risen, the north followed. At one time as many as three thousand men were in arms, and three or four gentlemen were murdered. But the force of the county was able and willing to keep the peace. The rioters were put down, and the leaders disposed of.

Thus with cost and difficulty internal peace was restored. But a success which involved the destruction of ten thousand brave Englishmen by the arms of foreigners, added little either to the credit or the popularity of the Government, while it had consumed the whole sum which had been voted by Parliament beyond the private advances of the council, and an unknown sum which was extracted in the course of the summer from the mint. Abroad it was even more difficult to repair the consequences of Somerset's mistakes.

It has been mentioned that, at the beginning of the summer, Paget was sent to Flanders to make proposals to the Emperor for an alliance against France. Had the Protector been content to do one thing at a time—had he forborne from throwing England into confusion by precipitate changes in religion, it was probable that he might have succeeded, and France might have been forced to leave Boulogne, and restore the Queen of