Accordingly, on the thirteenth, after exhorting the Council to remain true to Queen Jane, he left the Tower for Durham House, where he stayed a night, and then, on the fourteenth, he and his men marched out of the city. We were told by Sir William Wood, who had gone with many others to see them depart, that the Duke of Northumberland was heard observing to some one that though numbers watched them go, there was not one to say, 'God speed you!'
Our hearts were full of apprehension upon hearing this; and also Sir William's tidings that the silence of the multitude watching the troops go was something marvellous and most terrifying in its significance.
And yet again my dear lady said to me—
'Margery, you must go to hear what Dr. Ridley has to say about my claims, for I should fear nothing if only I were absolutely certain that they are just and equitable.'
Upon the Sunday, therefore—July 16 it was—I left the Tower with Lady Caroline and Sir William Wood and went to St. Paul's Cross, where a very great congregation was assembled to hear the bishop's preaching.
Sir William found us a place, with some difficulty, where we could stand without being pushed and hustled by the crowd, but we could hear nothing at first except the talking and moving about of the multitude, the cries of those who were hurt or pushed, and the endeavours of those in authority to induce order and quiet.
When, at length, I was able to hear what the venerable bishop was saying, I found that his eloquence was being exerted on a theme so much to my mind that I could have listened all day. He was speaking of the virtues and abilities of my dear mistress, and praising her exceedingly for her goodness and her learning, dwelling much upon the beneficent effect her Protestant rule would be certain to have upon the people of England, and maintaining her right and her title to the throne by the best arguments he could devise—I noticed among these none that were new, however, which I could carry home to Queen Jane. The fact was, he said nothing but what had been already employed, only being an orator, he said it more emphatically and more beautifully, and being a bishop, his words had to my thinking more weight, and he spoke them as one having great spiritual authority.
I was listening eagerly, with my eyes fixed on the preacher and ears intent only upon his words, when a man wrapped in a long foreign-looking cloak pressed so closely against me that I was pushed a little way from my companions. Glancing at the man with indignation, I perceived that his face was concealed partly by the collar of his coat and partly by a large felt hat pulled low over his brow. It was impossible, therefore, to distinguish his features, and yet I knew I had seen him before.
'Allow me,' I said, 'to step nearer to my friends.'
The fellow pretended not to hear. He stuck his hands in his pockets and straightened his broad back between me and my companions. I thought he was a boor, but no worse, and, giving up the attempt to move him, became speedily absorbed again in the preaching, if preaching it could be called, which was now a speech inveighing against the claims of the late King Henry's daughters, and especially of the Princess Mary, and representing, moreover, that if the latter succeeded to the throne it would mean certain destruction to the reformed religion, which, on the other hand, the amiable and pious Queen Jane would maintain in its entirety. He spoke, too, of the likelihood of Mary's contracting a marriage with a prince of the house of Spain, where the Inquisition, with all its ghastly horrors, was maintained. Then he went on to tell of an interview he had had with Mary before the late king's death. He had ridden over to visit her at Hundson, and she invited him to stay to dinner.