was to turn the gun
upon them; the second, and more prudent, was to spring on his horse,
and gallop with half a dozen others for his life. His whole force had
deserted, and guns, money, baggage, and five hundred of the best
troops in London fell into the insurgents' hands, and swelled their
ranks.

[Footnote 223: Norfolk to the Council from
Gravesend, Sunday, January 28, Monday, January 29:
_MS. Domestic, Mary_, State Paper Office.]

No sooner was the duke gone, than Wyatt in person came out over the
bridge. "As many as will tarry with us," he cried, "shall be welcome;
as many as will depart, let them go," Very few accepted the latter
offer. Three parts, even of Norfolk's private attendants, took service
with the rebel leader.

{p.096} The prestige of success decided all who were wavering in the
county. Abergavenny was wholly forsaken; Southwell escaped to the
court; Cheyne wrote to the council that he was no longer sure of any
one; "the abominable treason of those that came with the Duke of
Norfolk had infected the whole population."[224] Cobham continued to
hold off, but his sons came into Rochester the evening of the duke's
flight; and Wyatt sent a message to the father expressing his sorrow
that he had been hitherto backward; promising to forgive him, however,
and requiring him to be in the camp the next day, when the army would
march on London. Cobham still hesitating, two thousand men were at the
gates of his house[225] by daybreak the next morning (January 30). He
refused to lower the drawbridge, but the chains were cut with a
cannon-shot, the gates were blown open, and the rebels were storming
in when his servants forced him to surrender. The house was pillaged;
an oath was thrust on Cobham that he would join, which he took with
the intention of breaking it; and the rebels, perhaps seeing cause to
distrust him, carried him off to Wyatt as a prisoner.[226] That night
the insurgents rested at Gravesend. The next day (January 31) they
reached Dartford. Their actual numbers were insignificant, but their
strength was the disaffection of London, where the citizens were too
likely to follow the example which had been set at Rochester.

[Footnote 224: "It is a great deal more than
strange," he added, "to see the beastliness of the
people, to see how earnestly they be bent in this
thei