d with images of King Lud and other
monarchs. In the reign of Edward VI. the citizens, zealous against
everything that approached idolatry, smote off the heads of Lud and his
family; but Queen Mary, partial to all images, afterwards replaced the
heads on the old bodies.

In 1554 King Lud and his sons looked down on a street seething with
angry men, and saw blood shed upon the hill leading to St. Paul's. Sir
Thomas Wyat, a Kentish gentleman, urged by the Earl of Devon, and led on
by the almost universal dread of Queen Mary's marriage with the bigoted
Philip of Spain, assembled 1,500 armed men at Rochester Castle, and,
aided by 500 Londoners, who deserted to him, raised the standard of
insurrection. Five vessels of the fleet joined him, and with seven
pieces of artillery, captured from the Duke of Norfolk, he marched upon
London. Soon followed by 15,000 men, eager to save the Princess
Elizabeth, Wyat marched through Dartford to Greenwich and Deptford. With
a force now dwindled to 7,000 men, Wyat attacked London Bridge. Driven
from there by the Tower guns, he marched to Kingston, crossed the river,
resolving to beat back the Queen's troops at Brentford, and attempt to
enter the City by Lud Gate, which some of the Protestant citizens had
offered to throw open to him. The Queen, with true Tudor courage,
refused to leave St. James's, and in a council of war it was agreed to
throw a strong force into Lud Gate, and, permitting Wyat's advance up
Fleet Street, to enclose him like a wild boar in the toils. At nine on a
February morning, 1554, Wyat reached Hyde Park Corner, was cannonaded at
Hay Hill, and further on towards Charing Cross he and some three or four
hundred men were cut off from his other followers. Rushing on with a
standard through Piccadilly, Wyat reached Lud Gate. There (says Stow) he
knocked, calling out, "I am Wyat; the Queen has granted all my
petitions."

But the only reply from the strongly-guarded gate was the rough, stern
voice of Lord William Howard--"Avaunt, traitor; thou shalt have no
entrance here."

No friends appearing, and the Royal troops closing upon him, Wyat said,
"I have kept my promise," and retiring, silent and desponding, sat down
to rest on a stall opposite the gate of the "Belle Sauvage." Roused by
the shouts and sounds of fighting, he fought his way back, with forty of
his staunchest followers, to Temple Bar, which was held by a squadron of
horse. There the Norroy King-of-Arms exhorted