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344 YORK.
Earl of \Varwick with a larger force. The Earl of
Cumberland and Lord Scrope were holding Carlisle,
Sir Henry Percy and Sir John Forster were in command
of Berwick and the East Marches, and Sir
George Bowes was raising troops on the queen's side
in the Bishopric of Durham.
Many of the gentry supported the queen's cause
who had scant sympathy with the religion she had
established, actuated no doubt by motives of ordinary
prudence, for not a few of them must have
recognised the rashness of the scheme of the two
earls. But their known attachment to the ancient
faith appears to have affected Sir Ralph Sadler with
many misgivings :
" though their persons be here
with us,'' he writes, " I assure you their harts for the
most part be with the rebells .... if the father be
on this syde, the soon is on the other ; and one
brother with us, and the other with the rebells."
But if some who joined Sussex were but halfhearted
adherents, their lukewarmness was surpassed
by the indecision and want of generalship displayed
by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland.
Instead of maintaining their hold of Hartlepool,
as was feared by both Sadler and Cecil, they
allowed it to be retaken and garrisoned for th^
queen. The news of the approach of Sussex and
his troops seems to have struck a panic into
them, and they retreated from their position at
Wetherby in the direction of Raby. Their forces
then were numerically superior to those of Sussex,
' " State Papers and. Letters," ii. p. 55.