Blessed THOMAS PERCY, Layman, 1572

20 THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER

Biography

A GALLANT sight must have been the men of the Rising on the march. Nobles, knights with their tenants equipped for war, labourers and peasants unarmed but stout of heart, all wearing the Red Cross, their Standard the Five Sacred Wounds ;

its bearer, the grey-haired Richard Norton, late High Sheriff of Yorkshire. Among their chaplains, B. Thomas Plumtree, and heading the force the Earl and his brave-hearted Countess. They advanced as far south as Clifford Moor, near Wetherby, but their divided counsels and want of supplies forced them to retire, and at the advice of the Earl, anxious to avoid useless bloodshed, they dispersed. The cold-blooded revenge of Elizabeth displayed at once her avarice and cruelty. The gentlemen and yeomen were allowed to escape with a fine, but the peasants were hung by hundreds. The Earl fled to Scotland, and, consenting to meet an envoy from the Regent, was treacherously captured and confined in Lochleven. Thence after two years and a half imprisonment he was handed over to Elizabeth, who thirsted for his blood, for 2000 pounds. He was conveyed to York, where, after refusing to save his life by apostasy, he won his crown, August 22, 1572.

"But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver, and from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray Him."—MATT. xxvi. 16.