Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/411

1554.] confessions of many of the prisoners had more or less implicated Throgmorton. Cuthbert Vaughan, who was out with Wyatt, swore in the Court that Throgmorton had discussed the plan of the insurrection with him; and Throgmorton himself admitted that he had talked to Sir Peter Carew and Wyatt about the probability of a rebellion. He it was, too, who was to have conducted Courtenay to Andover on his flight into Devonshire; and the evidence leaves very little doubt that he was concerned as deeply as any one who did not actually take up arms. Sir Nicholas, however, defended himself with resolute pertinacity; he fought through all the charges against him, and dissected the depositions with the skill of a practised pleader; and in the end the jury returned the bold verdict of 'Not guilty.' Sir Thomas Bromley urged them to remember themselves. The foreman answered they had found the verdict according to their consciences.

Their consciences probably found less difficulty in the facts charged against Throgmorton than in the guilt to be attached to them. The verdict was intended as a rebuke to the cruelty with which the rebellion had been punished, and it was received as an insult to the Crown. The crowd, as Throgmorton left the Court, threw up their caps and shouted. The Queen was ill for three days with mortification, and insisted that the jurors should be punished. They were arrested, and kept as