of Gilbert on the pillory. The writer was a
Protestant, and evidently thought the Reformation
in greater danger from Northumberland than Mary.
"We have had many prophets and true preachers," he
said, "which did declare that our king shall be
taken away from us, and a tyrant shall reign. The
gospel shall be plucked away, and the right heir
shall be dispossessed; and all for our
unthankfulness. And, thinkest thou not, Gilbert,
this world is now come? Yea! truly! and what shall
follow, if we repent not in time? The same God will
take from us the virtuous Lady Mary our lawful
Queen, and send such a cruel Pharaoh as the Ragged
Bear to rule us, which shall pull and poll us, and
utterly destroy us, and bring us in great
calamities and miseries."]

[Footnote 59: _MS. Harleian_, 523.]

But the emperor's disinterestedness was only the result of his
despondency. While the crisis lasted, neither Charles nor Henry of
France saw their way to a distinct course of action. Charles, on the
20th of July, ignorant of the events in London, {p.025} had written
to Renard, despairing of Mary's success. Jane Grey he would not
recognise; the Queen of Scots, he thought, would shortly be on the
English throne. Henry, considering, at any rate, that he might catch
something in troubled waters, volunteered to Lord William Howard,[60]
in professed compliance with the demands of Northumberland, to
garrison Guisnes and Calais for him. Howard replied that the French
might come to Calais if they desired, but their reception might not be
to their taste.[61] The revolution of the 19th altered the aspect of
the situation both at the courts of Paris and of Brussels. The
accession of Mary would be no injury to France, provided she could be
married in England; and Henry at once instructed Noailles to
congratulate the council on her accession. Noailles himself indeed
considered, that, should she take Courtenay for a husband, the change
might, after all, be to their advantage. The emperor, on the other
hand, began to think again of his original scheme. Knowing that the
English were sincere in their detestation of the Papacy, and
imperfectly comprehending the insu