But for all that, she was exceedingly surprised.
There was some murmuring in May. The Duke of Northumberland, in the King’s name, had ordered all the churches to furnish an account of their goods; and on the first day of that month, the treasuries were robbed of all the plate, money, jewels, and vestments, which were confiscated to the King’s use; and the very bells of the churches shared their fate. Dr Thorpe had been growling over the matter in April, when it was but a project; averring that “when he had caught a man’s hand in his own pocket, it little amazed him afterward to see it in his neighbour’s:” but now, when the project reached open burglary, his anger found vent in hotter words.
“Lo’ you now! this cut-purse hath got his hand into an other man’s pocket, even as I said. Will no man put this companion into the Tower? Can none clap him therein under any manner of warrant?”
Note 1. A gesture well understood at that time, when plain speech was often perilous—the half-clasped hands resting upon the head in the form of a crown. By this gesture, fifty years later, when past speech, Queen Elizabeth answered the question of Robert Cecil concerning her successor. She meant, and he understood her to mean—“Let it be a King.”
Note 2. The cause of the first tumult was a sudden panic, occasioned by the running of some of the guards who arrived late; the second was due to the appearance of Sir Anthony Browne, whom the people fancied had been sent with a reprieve.
Note 3.
“Kingdoms are but cares,
State is devoid of stay,
Riches are ready snares,
And hasten to decay.”
King Henry the Sixth.
Note 4. Don and Doña are prefixes restricted to the Christian name. An Englishman using Don with the surname (an error to which our countrymen are strangely prone) commits the very same blunder for which he laughs at the Frenchman who says “Sir Peel.”
Note 5. A common Spanish greeting, the absurdity of which makes us sympathise with Lope de Vega’s Diana, in her matter-of-fact reply,—“Están á los piés asidas” (They are fixed to my feet).
Note 6. Inez, the form more familiar to English readers, is the Portuguese spelling.