Page:The Queens of England.djvu/430

 386 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. departed to the court, and Wyatt forthwith came unto Deepe- ford by Greenwich." The near approach of the rebels to London occasioned great alarm. The queen was advised to remove to the Tower, and such was the general panic that the lord mayor, aldermen, ana the greater part of the citizens donned their armor, and the sergeants and lawyers at Westminster Hall pleaded their causes "in harnesse," as Speed quaintly expresses it. Luckily the drooping spirits of the Londoners were at this time cheered by news of the defeat in the west of the insur- gents under Carew and Gibs, which was proclaimed in London upon Candlemas-eve ; and the following day Queen Mary came to Guildhall, attended by many of her court, when she met the lord mayor, the aldermen, and the chief citizens, be- fore whom she delivered a' speech so well calculated to touch their feelings, being a fair exposition of the unfounded dis- loyalty of the rebels, the insolence of their demands and her own affection for her people, that it at once increased their devotion to her cause and excited their courage to defend it. Mary appointed the Earl of Pembroke general of the forces, and issued a proclamation, offering one hundred pounds a year to him and his posterity forever, who should bring Wyatt, alive or dead, to custody. Lndeterred-by this proclamation, Wyatt, at the head of four thousand men, entered Southwark with little opposition, and to conciliate the inhabitants, pro- claimed that none of his soldiers should take away anything without due payment and the consent of the owners — a meas- ure which, though soon violated, gained him a considerable accession to his troops. Vinchester House was sacked and pillaged, the books of its fine library cut to pieces, and every lock torn from the doors. The rebels then proceeded to the city, where, finding the gates of the bridge secured against them, Wyatt placed two pieces of ordnance against them, pointed another at St. George's Church, a fourth at the entrance into Bermondsey and a fifth towards Winchester House. Finding that the lord mayor and Lord William Howard had rendered the entrance to the city impregnable, that the Tower and all steeples and gates in the vicinity were topped with ordnance, Wyatt drew off his troops towards Kingston-on-Thames, repaired with planks and lad- ders the bridge there, which had been broken, and crossing the river, reached Brentford before his intention of doing so was