Page:The Queens of England.djvu/397

LADY JAXE GREY. 355 privy-council. Her proclamation was heard in silence and with regret. The council had ordered it to be made throughout the country ; but they were obeyed only in London and its neighborhood, and there with evident reluctance. The Princess Mary lost no time in asserting her claim. She wrote to the privy-council claiming the crown, and expressing her surprise that the demise of her brother had not been duly notified to her. This done, she fled with all speed to Suffolk, and secured herself in Framlingham Castle, where she raised, the royal standard, and assumed the royal title. The answer of the council, under the dictation of Dudley, was one of studied insult ; and the pure-minded Lady Jane was compelled to see letters written in her name to, and concerning, the rightful heiress of the throne, in which Mary is treated as the "bastard daughter" of Henry the Eighth, and all true lieges are called upon to resist her "feigned and untrue claim." It is impos- sible to conceive a situation more agonizing and humiliating than that of Lady Jane Grey at this moment. She was com- pelled to be in the wrong, and to insult and do violence to the right. She felt that all justice, honor, and virtue were against her; that conscience and heaven were opposed to the claims set up in her name ; and that the condemnation of the world and posterity were inevitable. What a martyrdom for a soul that in its truth and magnanimous greatness was in reality above all her age ! The rapid success of Mary's arms left no question as to the result. Everywhere she was received with enthusiastic ac- clamation. People on all sides crowded to her standard. On the other hand, nothing but coldness and desertion attended Dudley and his movements. Suspicious of the council and the court, he dreaded to quit London ; and he was, therefore, com- pelled to place Lady Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, at the head of the forces sent to oppose the progress of Mary. But the known unfitness of Suffolk for such a command, and the entreaties of Lady Jane, obliged Dudley finally to resume the direction of the troops in person. On the 14th of July, 1553, Dudley, accompanied by the Marquis of Northampton. Lord Grey," and several other per- sons of rank, proceeded to meet Mary's forces. Their forces amounted, horse and foot, to ten thousand ; but on arriving at St. Edmond's Bury, they found Mary's forces amounted to double the number. Everywhere the nobility and people were flocking: to Mary's standard, while Dudley's camp was