1539.]
THE EXETER CONSPIRACY.
163
The inspection proving satisfactory, Sir Thomas Cheyne was left at Dover Castle, with command of the
which face the sea. They had all been made since the return of M. de Chastillon, and were well furnished with artillery, large and small. No landing at Dover could be attempted now with a prospect of success.
'In Canterbury, and the other towns upon the road, I found every English subject in arms who was capable of serving. Boys of seventeen or eighteen have been called out, without exemption of place or person. The inhabitants of London are formed into a corps by themselves for the protection of the City. French subjects residing here for trade have not been spared; they too have been required to serve, whether they desire it or no. Some have answered bravely that they would not bear arms against their natural Sovereign. Others, taken unawares, have yielded through timidity.'On the road I met a body of men. I was told there were six thousand of them, going as a garrison to Sandwich. As I approached the City I saw the King's ships and galleys all armed and ready to sail. A multitude of private vessels were fitting at their side with all speed; and when this flotilla goes to sea, and unites with the five-and-twenty or thirty ships at Portsmouth, the whole force will amount to a hundred and fifty sail.'Merchants' traffic outward or inward is interdicted. Every vessel is under arrest, and no one is allowed to leave the realm. English subjects abroad have received orders to return, and are most of them by this time at home. Artillery and ammunition pass out incessantly from the Tower, and are despatched to all points on the coast where a landing is likely to be attempted. In short, my lord, they have made such progress that an invading force will not find them unprovided. They are prepared on all sides to the very extent of their ability, and the great lords are at their posts as if the enemy were already at their doors.'The cause of the excitement, my lord, is a conviction on the part of their King that the Emperor, the Pope, and our master, are in a league to destroy him and his realm. The King told me himself that he knew from the best authority that the Most Christian King was concerting measures with the Emperor to fall upon him. Your secretary, my lord, he said, was waiting in Spain to bring you the Emperor's latest instructions. M. de Chastillon's sudden departure gave a show of reason to the alarm. The Emperor's ambassador demanded his passports directly after, and went away without speaking of a successor; and where before there was little doubt that mischief was meant the uncertainty was then at an end. They
