Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/196

 ife REIGN OF ELIZABETH. . 53 authors of the rebellion were cursed on every side. 1 But it was a fear which was accompanied with no sense of deserved suffering. Their condition, as described by a correspondent of Cecil's, was rather one of ' mad desperation/ and a passionate prayer for some turn of fortune which would give them their chance of revenge. They saw the gentlemen who were the occasions of the mischief spared they knew not why. They saw them- selves hunted down and destroyed as if they were wild beasts, and the effect of ' the example ' was only to in- crease the likelihood of another insurrection. 2 Still Elizabeth was not satisfied. She seemed pos- sessed by a temper unlike any which she ever displayed before or after. When the martial law was over, she ordered the council of York ' to attaint all offenders that might be gotten by process or otherwise ; ' till at length the Crown prosecutor, Sir Thomas Gargrave, was obliged to tell her that if she were obeyed ' many places would be left naked of inhabitants ; ' ' the poor husbandman, if he was not a great Papist, could be- come a good subject/ and she would do well to grant 1 Sir George Bowes to Ralph Bowes, January 23 : Memorials of the Rebellion. 2 ' Though many have suffered and many are shorn to the bare pilch, yet because few or none of the gentlemen have tasted of judgment who only were the incentors to all, the danger is rather doubled than in any respect foredone.' to Cecil, February 6 : MSS. Border. In Northumberland, where "War- wick commanded, there was com- parative mercy. In Yorkshire and Durham the Catholics nattered themselves ' that the execution of so many poor men had hardened and exasperated the rest.' La Mothe, January 21 : Depeches, vol. ii.