Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/67

1551.] Calvin, more keen-sighted than the correspondent who furnished him with these stories, meditated a remonstrance to the King, with a caution against the advisers who were betraying him. In England the general indignation could not be concealed by the loud applauses of the revolutionists. It was likely enough that, were Somerset free, there would be a convulsion; but men could not be convinced that any change would be an evil which would deliver them from the hated Northumberland.

No alteration could be expected in the popular feeling, and the irritation would be inflamed by longer delay. The execution was fixed at last for the morning of the 22nd of January.

As an attempt at rescue was anticipated, an order of council again commanded all inhabitants of the city or the suburbs to keep to their houses. A thousand men-at-arms brought in from the country were drawn up on Tower Hill, and with the gendarmerie formed a ring round the scaffold; but the proclamation was not more effectual at the execution than at the trial. As the day dawned, the great square and every avenue of