Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/194

 iSo REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. that the example should be, as was necessary, very great,' 1 If the seventy persons hanged in hot blood after the fight at Carlisle be not included, the number of persons executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace did not exceed two hundred, and among those ' the common sort' were not represented. The tendency of a Government to be harsh is in the ratio of its weakness ; and Elizabeth, to whom nothing naturally was more distasteful than cruelty, when Sussex's arrangements were made known to her, was only impatient that they should be com- pleted. There had been some delay, perhaps in deter- mining the spots where the executions were to be. She wrote on the nth of January that ' she somewhat mar- velled that she had as yet heard nothing from Sussex of any execution done by martial law as was appointed.' She required him, ' if the same was not already done, to proceed thereto with all the expedition he might, and to certify her of his doings therein.' 2 Sussex had no need of the spur, and had been only too anxious to clear himself of suspicions of disloyalty. Before the letter reached him the victims had been made over to the Provost Marshal. Sir George Bowes, who had un- dertaken to superintend the process, was stringing them leisurely upon the trees in the towns and village greens. Eighty were hanged at Durham, those chiefly who had taken a part in the Catholic jubilee at the Cathedral. Forty suffered at Darlington, and twenty of Bowes's 1 Sussex to Cecil, December 28 : I 2 Elizabeth to Sussex, January MSS. Border. II : MSS. Border,