Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/165

1569.] THE RISING OF THE NORTH. 151 in the field for all England to welcome him. He had looked rather for a triumphant procession to London than to a rebellion which was to cost blood. ' He had not taken arms to fight against his mistress,' he said, but only in defence of his life, and to remonstrate against the misgovernment of his country. In Percy's weakness the hope of rebellion was for the present ended. Five weeks before, the Earls had entered Durham with their priests and banners, to re- instate the kingdom of the saints. They had to leave it now in scandalous discomfiture, for the tide of heresy to flow once more behind them. They could not count their cause lost ; the majority of the English nation, if measured by numbers, was still enormously in their favour. But for the moment, the powers of evil were in the ascendant, and there was nothing left for them to do but to save their lives. The smaller gentlemen made for their homes, trusting to their insignificance to conceal the part which they had taken. The Earls and the more conspicuous leaders went off for Liddisdale, and the first act of the great Catholic conspiracy was over. The Queen's troops followed swift on their retreat- ing footsteps. There were now but a few score of them holding together ; the two noblemen, their ladies, the Nortons, Markinfield, Swinburn, and their servants. The weather had changed; a blasting north wind swept over the moors, with snow and sleet lashing in their faces. 1 Beyond Hexham they were turned by 1 The hard weather lasted into I cidents of the rebellion there is a January, and among the minor in- I touching account of the consequent