Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/130

110 martial law was proclaimed in many parts of the country.

The periodic sore of bankruptcy was again running. The revenue still clung to the hands by which it was collected. Fines, confiscations, church plate, church lands, mint plunder, vanished like fairy gold. The languid eiforts of the council to extricate themselves availed only to show how helpless was their embarrassment. In August, 1552, a bill fell due in Antwerp for 56,000l. Sir Thomas Gresham had been in the Low Countries in July; and as there was no money to meet the bill, he brought back with him a proposal for a further postponement on the usual terms; with a condition to which also the home Government was accustomed, that certain wares, fustians and diamonds, should be purchased of the lenders. Such transactions, however disguised, could have but one meaning: the bankers sold their jewels at their own prices; the English Government had to dispose of them for such prices as they would fetch in the market.

Northumberland was absent on the Scottish Border, and the council, freed from his authority, refused to submit to the imposition. They instructed Gresham to return to Antwerp and to say that the King would pay as soon as he could, but the times were troublesome, and he had other employment for his money: the bankers must be reasonable, and wait.

The trader sympathized with his order. Gresham