Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/54

34 taken also, 'because he could tell many pretty things;' and as a violent arrest might perhaps be violently resisted, it was not impossible that lives might be taken in the scuffle. Somerset himself admitted that the deaths of Warwick and the other noblemen had been spoken of as a contingency which might occur: an intention that they should be killed, if he ever formed such, he soon relinquished. His plan, so long as it was entertained, was to treat the Lords as he had been treated himself, and to call Parliament immediately, 'lest peradventure of one evil might happen another.' But his mind misgave him, and his purposes were vacillating First, there was a doubt whether Herbert should be included in the arrest; afterwards, according to one witness, the Duke changed his mind, 'and would meddle no further with the apprehension of any of the council, and said he was sorry he had gone so far with the Earl of Arundel.'

So the matter stood in the beginning of October. Among those who had been privy to the conspiracy was Sir Thomas Palmer, a soldier who had gained some credit by desperate service in the French wars, and had led the forlorn hope of cavalry who sacrificed themselves at Haddington to enable supplies to reach the blockaded garrison: a brave man, but, as it seemed, a most unscrupulous one, whose services in a dangerous enterprise might be as useful as his fidelity was uncertain.