Then about half of them took horse and rode off, this way and that, to gather men in the King's name, while the rest stayed to guard the Hall and work at its defences.
By sunset men were riding up from all sides, some of them driving carts loaded with provisions, arms and fodder, or sheep and beasts that could be killed for sustenance, while as they came Jacob enrolled their names upon a paper and by virtue of his commission Thomas Bolle swore them in.
Indeed that night they had forty men quartered there, and the promise of many more.
By now, however, the secret was out, for the story had gone round and the smoke from the Shefton chimneys told its own tale.

First a single spy appeared on the opposite rise, watching.

Then he galloped away, to return an hour later with ten armed and mounted men, one of whom carried a banner on which were embroidered the emblems of the Pilgrimage of Grace.

These men rode to within a hundred paces of Shefton Hall, apparently with the object of attacking it, then seeing that the drawbridge was up and that archers with bent bows stood on either side, halted and sent forward one of their number with a white flag to parley.
"Who holds Shefton," shouted this man, "and for what cause ?" "The Lady Harflete, its owner, and Captain Thomas Bolle, for the cause of the King," called old Jacob Smith back to him.
"By what warrant ?" asked the man.

"The Abbot of Blossholme is lord of Shefton, and Thomas Bolle is but a lay-brother of his monastery." "By warrant of the King's Grace," said Jacob, and then and there at the top of his voice he read to him the Royal Commission, which when the envoy had heard, he went back to consult with his companions.