who was
determined, at all events, to prevent the Protestants from making
head, informed the queen, without mentioning Courtenay's name, that he
had cause to suspect Sir Peter Carew. A summons was despatched to
Devonshire to require Sir Peter and his brother to return to London;
and thus either to compel them to rise prematurely, without
Courtenay's assistance, or, if they complied, to enable the court to
secure their persons. The desired effect was produced; Carew had waded
too deep in treason to trust himself in Gardiner's hands. He wrote an
excuse, yet protesting his loyalty; and he invited the inhabitants of
Exeter to join in a petition to the crown against the marriage, as a
first step towards a rising.

But the Carews were notorious and unpopular; the justices of the peace
at the sessions had been just occupied with a Protestant outrage
committed by one of their nearest friends,[207] and their true object
was suspected. The barns of Crediton were not forgotten, nor the
massacre of the prisoners at Clyst, and without Courtenay they were
powerless. Their invitation met with no response; and Chichester and
Champernowne, seeing how the tide was setting, washed their hands of
the {p.090} connection. Sir Thomas Dennys, a Catholic gentleman of
the county, took command of Exeter, sent express for the sheriff, Sir
Richard Edgecumbe, of Cotteyll, to come to his help, and as well as he
could he put the city in a state of defence.[208] Carew retired to
Mohun's Ottery, when an order came to Dennys from the court for his
arrest.

[Footnote 207: "On the morning of Christmas-day
came twelve neighbours of Silverton, being the
parish where Mr. Gybbes dwelleth, and they
complained to me of a cross of latten, and of an
altar-cloth stolen out of the church before that
time; and that the cross was set up upon a gate or
upon a hedge by the way, where the picture of
Christ was dressed with a paste or such like tyre,
and the picture of our Lady and St. John tied by
threads to the arms of the cross, like thieves."
"Mr. Gybbes" could not be actually convicted of
having been the perpetrator, but he was "vehemently
suspected," and, when examined, had used "vile
words."--Depositi