Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/273

1553.] The English Protestant preachers seeing that priests everywhere held themselves licensed ex officio to speak as they pleased from the pulpit, began themselves also, in many places, to disobey the Queen's proclamation. They were made immediately to feel their mistake, and were brought to London to the Tower, the Marshalsea, or the Fleet, to the cells left vacant by their opponents. Among the rest came one who had borne no share in the late misdoings, but had long foreseen the fate to which those doings would bring him and many more. When Latimer was sent for, he was at Stamford. Six hours' notice was given him of his intended arrest; and so obviously his escape was desired that the pursuivant who brought the warrant left him to obey it at his leisure; his orders, he said, were not to wait. But Latimer had business in England. While the fanatics who had provoked the catastrophe were slinking across the Channel from its consequences, Latimer determined to stay at home, and help to pay the debts which they had incurred. He went quietly to London, appeared before the council, where his 'demeanour' was what they were pleased to term 'seditious,' and was committed to the Tower. 'What, my friend,' he said to a warder who was an old acquaintance there, 'how do you? I am come to be your neighbour again.'