A history of the house of Percy : from the earliest times down to the present century . lsey lost no opportunity of further aggravating theunhappy lot of the earl, behaving to him generally asthough he had been some barefoot novice of a beggingfraternity, rather than the chief of the greatest family inthe North and a blood-relative of the king. Again andagain we find Northumberland accused of ^^wastefulnessor lacke of thrift by the minister or his insolent (andprobably dishonest) agents. Yet there seems little or nojustification for these charges. The fifth earl had left debtsamounting to over
A history of the house of Percy : from the earliest times down to the present century . lsey lost no opportunity of further aggravating theunhappy lot of the earl, behaving to him generally asthough he had been some barefoot novice of a beggingfraternity, rather than the chief of the greatest family inthe North and a blood-relative of the king. Again andagain we find Northumberland accused of ^^wastefulnessor lacke of thrift by the minister or his insolent (andprobably dishonest) agents. Yet there seems little or nojustification for these charges. The fifth earl had left debtsamounting to over ;^i7,000. So far as can be discovered,the sixth earl owed only ;^8oo, and this in spite of the factthat his younger brothers (to whom he was as generous ashis means allowed) were wholly dependent upon him. Butthese unfair attacks did not hurt or humiliate our subjecthalf so much as the swarm of spies which were kept con-stantly about his house by Wolsey. His servants wereencouraged to watch all his doings, and inform the cardinalconcerning them. Since they received pay for any news. THE HOUSE OF PERCY 189 of this kind sent to London, they not infrequently carriedslanderous and lying stories thither; and the complaintsand protests of Northumberland were disregarded in favourof anything which this venal crew chose to say against theirmaster. It was a most intolerable form of persecution ;and one is not surprised to find the earl writing in thefollowing strain to his friend Arundel—his one friendapparently, for even his wife was understood to be in thecardinals pay :— Alyne owne good bedfellow,^ thys Saterdayat XII off the clock at ntydnyght, I reseyved yr loveyng andkind advertisements, thereby not onely wellperseyvyng the truehart in old tyine which ye have borne to me, but also ye perse-verant good mind off ye sayme by whiche daily you do renuemyne old bond of ainyte, which in hart cannot be more than ytys, as yt ys bounden. ^^ Also I perseyff y som Judas about me, notwith
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