Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/171

1553.] which could not bear the sound of the church-bells, and regarded an organ as impious. The clergy at the moment when the King's illness became serious were being subjected to a compulsory subscription to the Forty-two Articles, under pain of ejection from their benefices; while the universal corruption of public functionaries, the sufferings of the poor, the ruin of the currency, and the embarrassment of the finances, reflected double discredit on the opinions of which these were considered the results. It was assumed that Mary was English, that she would govern only through an English Parliament and with English ministers. The tyranny of Rome had not been broken that it might be followed by a more intolerable tyranny of Protestantism.

Northumberland bowed outwardly to the general feeling. He supplied the Princess, who was then at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire, with regular bulletins of the King's health; and he restored to her the arms and quarterings which she had borne as heir-presumptive before the divorce of her mother. Yet it was observed that he was collecting money with unusual eagerness. There were rumours of disagreement at the council-board. It was said that Lord Pembroke had desired to leave London, and had been forcibly compelled to remain; and at the end of April a marriage was announced as about to take place between Lord Guilford Dudley, the Duke's fourth son, a boy of seventeen, and Lady Jane Grey. Whatever may have been