Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/225

 1570-] THE RISING OF THE NORTH. 2n smooth speeches, ordered Sussex to take him and send him back to London. It was easier to command than to execute. Lord Dacres, as in the North he was uni versally called, by lighting a couple of beacon fires could collect four thousand men about him in a few hours, hardy yeomen and their servants seasoned in the furnace of the Border wars, whose fealty was to the Lord oi JNTaworth, and who were loyal to the Queen only when the Dacres was loyal himself. Naworth Castle con- tained some hundreds of armed retainers. The Border was but ten miles distant, and two hours' gallop would bring down a flight of moss-troopers from Liddisdale. He had cannon and powder ; he was rich, and had been long prepared ; and situated as he -was, he could fight if it served his purpose, or fly to Scotland if flight was convenient. To arrest him required a small army, and, infuriated as the people were by the executions, it was a difficult and half-desperate enterprise. Sussex on receiving the Queen's order replied, that as she had been pleased to order her troops to be dis- banded, he had no force at his disposition and could not at once obey her. Elizabeth, who did not choose to be contradicted, and was brave when bravery was out ol place, wrote again that she would take no excuses. The will, she implied, was more wanting than the power, and she bade Sussex set about the business without an- other word. ' All actions/ he said to Cecil in answer, ' were so hardly interpreted, that every man was afraid to do or advise further than was plainly directed.' He did not