any news of the battle of Barnet had arrived there. On the third
day after leaving St. Albans he reached Westbury, and there heard
that the news had been received of the queen's landing at Plymouth
on the very day on which her friends had been defeated at Barnet,
and that she had already been joined by the Duke of Somerset, the
Earl of Devon, and others, and that Exeter had been named as the
point of rendezvous for her friends. As the Lancastrians were
in the majority in Wiltshire and Somerset, there was no longer any
fear of arrest by partisans of York, and after resting for a day
Sir Thomas Tresham rode quietly on to Exeter, where the queen had
already arrived.

The battle of Barnet had not, in reality, greatly weakened the
Lancastrian cause. The Earl of Warwick was so detested by the
adherents of the Red Rose that comparatively few of them had joined
him, and the fight was rather between the two sections of Yorkists
than between York and Lancaster. The Earl's death had broken up
his party, and York and Lancaster were now face to face with each
other, without his disturbing influence on either side. Among
those who had joined the queen was Tresham's great friend, the Grand
Prior of St. John's. Sir Thomas took up his lodgings in the house
where he had established himself. The queen was greatly pleased at
the arrival of Dame Tresham, and at her earnest request the latter
shared her apartments, while Gervaise remained with his father.

"So this is the young Knight of St. John," the prior said, on the
evening of the arrival of Sir Thomas. "I would, Tresham, that I were
at present at Rhodes, doing battle with the infidels, rather than
engaged in this warfare against Englishmen and fellow Christians."