e Puritan Lord Huntingdon. The
Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, with Lord Lumley, were secured. Norfolk
himself, summoned peremptorily to court, dared not disobey; and found
himself at the opening of October a prisoner in the Tower. The more
dangerous plot was foiled, for whatever were Norfolk's own designs, most
of his Conservative partizans were good Protestants, and their aim of
securing the succession by a Protestant marriage for Mary was one with
which the bulk of the nation would have sympathized. But the Catholic
plot remained; and in October the hopes of its leaders were stirred
afresh by a new defeat of the Huguenots at Montcontour; while a Papal
envoy, Dr. Morton, goaded them to action by news that a Bull of
Deposition was ready at Rome. At last a summons to court tested the
loyalty of the Earls, and on the tenth of November 1569 Northumberland
gave the signal for a rising. He was at once joined by the Earl of
Westmoreland, and in a few days the Earls entered Durham and called the
North to arms. They shrank from an open revolt against the Queen, and
demanded only the dismissal of her ministers and the recognition of
Mary's right of succession. But with these demands went a pledge to
re-establish the Catholic religion. The Bible and Prayer-Book were torn
to pieces, and Mass said once more at the altar of Durham Cathedral,
before the Earls pushed on to Doncaster with an army which soon swelled
to thousands of men. Their cry was "to reduce all causes of religion to
the old custom and usage"; and the Earl of Sussex, her general in the
North, wrote frankly to Elizabeth that "there were not ten gentlemen in
Yorkshire that did allow [approve] her proceedings in the cause of
religion." But he was as loyal as he was frank, and held York stoutly
while the Queen ordered Mary's hasty removal to a new prison at
Coventry. The storm however broke as rapidly as it had gathered. Leonard
Dacres held aloof. Lord Derby proved loyal. The Catholic lords of the
south refused to stir without help from Spain. The mass of the Catholics
throughout the country made no sign; and the Earls no sooner halted
irresolute in presence of this unexpected inaction than their army
caught the panic and dispersed. Northumberland and Westmoreland fled in
the middle of December, and were followed in their flight by Leonard
Dacres of Naworth, while their miserable adherents paid for their
disloyalty in bloodshed and ruin.

[Sidenote: The Bull of Depositio