persons of his sisters, to both of whom deceitful letters were written in his name, requiring- them to instantly visit him in his sickness. AVith Mary, the stratagem nearly succeeded. She had set out from Hunsdon, and reached Hoddesdon, on her journey to London, when secret intelligence of the truth was conveyed to her by the Earl oi Arundel, who attended Edward in his dying moments, and was secret enemy to Northumberland. The bearer of those startling tidings was Mary's own goldsmith ; at first she doubted his assertion, but after pondering for a while, she turned her course, and hastened towards her residence in Kenningball, in the county of Norfolk. In the neighbourhood of Cambridge, Mr. Huddlesdon, the proprietor of Sawstone Hall, and a staunch Catholic, sheltered her and her retinue from the inclemency of a stormy night. The next morning, before the sun rose, she hastened on her journey, and she had proceeded but a few miles, when, to her astonishment, on looking round, she beheld tbe mansion she had just left, one sheet of flames. A Protestant party from Cambridge, on hearing of her arrival, had attacked and fired the building, in the hope of securing her. " Let it blaze," she exclaimed ; " I will build Huddlestone a better ;" and shortly afterwards, she erected the substantial edifice now known as Sawstone Hall. Wearied in body and harassed in mind, she reached Kenninghall at the midnight hour of the eighth of July. On the ninth she wrote a letter to the lords of the council, in which she assumed the style and tone of their sovereign, mentioned the death of her brother with feeling, hinted a knowledge of their inimical projects, and commanded them, as they hoped for favour, to proclaim her accession immediately in the metropolis, and as soon as possible in all other parts of the kingdom. The council who had proclaimed Lady Jane Queen on the tenth, and taken every precaution to ensure success, returned Mary an insolent answer, reminding her of her illegitimacy, and requiring her to submit to her lawful and undoubted sovereign, Queen Jane. Nothing daunted by these threats, Mary, although without money, soldiers, or advisers, made a grand and success ful effort to assert her rights. To open a communication with the Emperor in Flanders, and toplace herself in a position to withstand a siege, she on the eleventh left Kcnninghall, and, riding forty miles without rest, on the same evening reached the embattled castle of Framlingham, * in Suffolk, where she instantly hoisted her standard; and in a few days was surrounded by more than thirty thou sand men, all volunteers in her cause, and who served through the sole motive of loyalty. Sir Henry Bedingfield and Sir Henry Jeraingham, with their tenants, joined her before she left Kenningball; the Earl of Essex, the Lord Thomas Howard, the Sulyards, the Pastons, and most of the gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk, with their numerous dependants, now rallied round her standard; whilst Sir Edward Hastings, after raising for the Northumberland faction ten thousand men, in Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, Oxford, and Berks, turned round, proclaimed Queen Mary, and placed his troops at her disposal; in fact, the great body of the nation saw through the selfish intrigues of Northumberland, turned their back upon him, and acknowledged Mary for their just andlawful Queen. On tho twelfth of July, she was solemnly proclaimed Queen at Norwich ; about three days afterwards, a squadron of six sail, equipped with military stores, which the council in London had sent to besiege her castle, on entering Yarmouth harbour were prevailed upon by Sir Henry Jerningham to acknowledge her authority ; the sailors declaring they would rather throw their captains into the sea than fight against Queen Mary, whose true subjects they were. From these ships a timely supply of arms and ammunition was obtained, several pieces of ordnance were conveyed to Framlingham from neighbouring forts, all the gaols in Norfolk and Suffolk were, by Mary's orders, * Framlingham Castle belonged to the crown when Edward the Sixth died, hut its governor being a Catholic, willingly surrendered it to Mary as Queen.