After this he was sent up to London, and there, în Newgate, strictly examined concerning the pretended plot, Oates, Bedloe, Dugdale, and Prance, being brought to confront him, but they could not charge him with any guilt in that kind. My lord Shaftesbury suggested to him, that he might both save his life and improve his fortune, if he would make some discovery of the plot, or conform in matters of religion; but "discover plot," says he, in his dying speech, "I could not, for I knew of none; and conform I would not, for it was against my conscience:" wherefore he was sent back to the country, where he remained three months longer in prison, and then was ordered for execution.

It was on the 27th of August, 1679, he was drawn to the gallows at Usk, in Monmouthshire, where he made a long speech to a very large auditory assembled on that occasion. "Here is," said he, "a numerous assembly-the great Saviour of the world save every soul of you all. I believe you are here met not only to see a fellow-native die, but also with expectation to hear a dying fellow-native speak. 'Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief; but if as a Christian, be not ashamed.' 1 St. Peter, iv. I suffer not as a murderer, thief, or such like malefactor, but as a Christian, therefore am not ashamed." He then proceeded to let his auditors know how unjustly he had been charged, in a vile pamphlet, of having cheated a poor woman of 30%. under pretence of delivering her father's soul out of purgatory, which, as he declared, was no better than mere fiction and malice, without the least appearance of truth. And as to the plot, he called God to witness, that he never heard or knew any thing of it, till public fame had spread it over the country; and that for his part, none of the king's witnesses, when confronted with him in Newgate, could pretend to charge him with any such guilt: that he ever detested the king-killing doctrine, as opposed to the principles of the Catholic religion, and condemned by the council of Constance, and in testimony of his loyalty he heartily prayed for the king, adding, that his religion alone was the cause for which he was to die. 'My relireligion," says he, "is the Roman Catholic; in it I have lived above these forty years; in it I now die, and so fixedly die, that if all the good things in this world were offered me to renounce it, all should not remove me one hair's breadth from my Roman Catholic faith. A Roman Catholic I am; a Roman Catholic priest I am; a Roman Catholic priest of that religious order called the society of Jesus I am; and I bless God who first called me, and I bless the hour in which I was first called both unto faith and function. Please now to observe, I was condemned for reading mass, hearing confessions, administering the sacraments, &c.As for reading the mass, it was the old, and still is the accustomed and laudable liturgy of the holy church; and all the other acts, are acts of religion tending to the worship of God, and therefore dying for this I die for religion-and dying upon so good a score, as far as human frailty permits, I die with alacrity interior and exterior; from the abundance of the heart let not only mouths but faces also speak. Here, methinks, I hear flesh and blood ready to burst into loud cries-blood for blood, life for life. No, crieth the holy gospel, forgive, and you shall be forgiven; pray for those that persecute you; love your enemies: and I profess myself as a child of the gospel, and the gospel I obey. Whomsoever, present or absent, I have ever offended, I humbly desire them to forgive

me. As for my enemies, I freely forgive them all; my neighbours that betrayed me, the justices that committed me, &c. but singularly and especially, I forgive my capital persecutor, who hath been so long thirsting after my blood; from my soul I forgive him, and wish his soul so well, that were it in my power, I would seat him a seraphim in heaven. Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Then addressing himself to the Catholics, "" Friends," said he, "fear God, honour your king; be firm in your faith; avoid mortal sin, by frequenting the sacraments of holy church; patiently bear your persecutions and afflictions; forgive your enemies, your sufferings are great; I say, be firm in your faith to the end, yea, even to death; then shall you heap unto yourselves celestial treasures in the heavenly Jerusalem, where no thief robbeth, no moth eateth, and no rust consumeth; and have that blessed saying of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, always in your memory, which I heartily recommend to you, viz. 'let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief; but if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in his name." Having finished his speech to the people, he applied himself to God in prayer and ejaculations, and so he was executed. Father Baker was commonly known on the mission by the name of David Lewis.

28. Wm. Dean, Priest, and Henry Webley, Layman.

Mr. Dean was born in Yorkshire, made priest at the English college at Rheims, and sent upon the mission in 1582. He fell into the hands of the persecutors some time before the year 1585, and was one of those priests that were banished in the beginning of that year. He quickly returned again to his missionary labours, and falling a second time into the hands of the Protestants, was tried and condemned on the 22d of August, for being made priest by Roman authority, and remaining in this realm contrary to the statute of Elizabeth. On the 28th of the same month he was drawn to Mile's-end-green, and executed according to sentence. At the place of execution he was beginning to speak of the cause for which he and his companion were condemned to die; but his mouth was stopped by some that were in the cart, in such a violent manner, that they had very nearly prevented the hangman from receiving his wages.

Henry Webley, a layman, was executed with Mr. Dean, for having been aiding and assisting to him. He met death with great fortitude.

William Gunter, Priest.

William Gunter was born at Ragland, in Monmouthshire, and being made priest at the English college at Rheims, was sent upon the mission in 1587. He was apprehended, tried, and condemned barely for his priestly character. He was drawn on the 28th of August from Newgate to the new pair of gallows erected after the deliverance from the Spanish armada by the earl of Leicester's orders at the theatre, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered.

Robert Morton, Priest, and Hugh Moor, Gentleman.

.. Mr. Morton was born in Yorkshire, and, going abroad, had bis education partly in the English college at Rome, and partly at that in Rheims, in which latter seminary he was made priest, and from thence sent mis

sioner into England in 1587. He was apprehended, tried and condemned by the sanguinary statute of the 27th of Elizabeth, barely for his priestly character and functions. He received sentence of death on the 26th of August, 1588, and on the 28th of the same month was drawn from Newgate to a new pair of gallows set up in Lincoln's-inn-fields, by order of Leicester as just mentioned, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered. With him was executed,

Hugh Moor, gentleman, born at Granthan, in Lincolnshire, who, after a Protestant education, being reconciled to the Catholic church, went abroad to the college then residing at Rheims, and was for some time a student there; but returning into England, was apprehended and cast into prison, and after some time tried and condemned for being reconciled to the Catholic church, and going abroad to a Romish seminary. He absolutely refused to go to church, for this would have made atonement for his pretended treason, and therefore had sentence to die, and was executed accordingly.

Thomas Holford, Priest.

Mr. Holford was born in Cheshire, and was some time schoolmaster in the family of sir James Scudamore, of Holm Lang, in Herefordshire. He then went to Rheims, where he was made priest, and sent upon the English mission. After several hair-breadth escapes, Mr. Holford was finally apprehended in London, tried and condemned for being a priest, and executed at Clerkenwell on the 28th day of August, 1588.

James Claxton, Priest.

He was born in Yorkshire, made priest at the English college at Rheims, and sent upon the mission in 1582. Falling into the hands of the persecutors, he was sent into banishment in the year 1585, with several other priests, but soon returned to his missionary labours. He was not allowed to perform his duties long, for falling a second time into the hands of the enemy, he was tried and condemned merely for being a priest, and was executed between Brentford and Hounslow, on the 28th of August, 1588, with

Thomas Felton, Gentleman.

Mr. Felton was born at Bermondsey abbey, in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Southwark, in the year 1567, and was son to Mr. John Felton, who suffered in the year 1570, for setting up the bull of Pius V. excommunicating queen Elizabeth. After a good deal of tribulation in his youth, he was committed to Bridewell; and in this his imprisonment (says a manuscript account, written by his sister, Frances, afterwards married to a Mr. Salisbury) he was very cruelly treated for first he was put into Little Ease, where he remained three days and three nights, not being able to stand, or lie, or sit, and fed only with bread and water, as both the keeper's wife, and Thomas himself afterwards told his sister Frances. After this he was put into the mill to grind, and was fed no otherwise all the while he laboured in it, than he had been before in Little Ease, viz. with bread and water only. Then he was hanged up by the hands, to the end to draw from him, by way of confession, what priests he knew beyond the seas,

or in England, which punishment was so grievous, that therewith the blood sprung forth at his fingers' ends. At another time, upon a Sunday, he was violently taken by certain officers, and carried betwixt two, fast bound in a chair, into the chapel at Bridewell to hear their service. He

having his hands at first at liberty, stopped his ears with his fingers that he might not hear what the minister said; then they bound down his hands also to the chair, but being set down to the ground, bound in the manner aforesaid, he stamped with his feet, and made that noise with his mouth, shouting and hallowing, and crying oftentimes "Jesus, Jesus," that nothing which the minister said could be heard by any then present at the service. His sister, Frances Felton, aforementioned, who at that time came to the prison to visit him, was present at the church at this passage, not being then a Catholic.

After this he was called to the bar, at the sessions of Newgate; the Spanish fleet making towards England having then newly been defeated, he was questioned whether he would have taken the queen's part, or the pope's and Spaniards', if those forces had landed? He answered, he would have taken part with God and his country. Then the judge asked him whether he did acknowledge the queen to be the supreme head of the church of England? Whereunto he made answer, "that he had read divers chronicles, but never read that God ordained a woman should be supreme head of the church." For this speech of his the judge condemned him. The next day, the 28th of August, he was hanged near Brentford, in Middlesex, with a priest at the same time condemned with him, whose name was Mr. James Claxton or Clarkson. They were carried together from Bridewell on horseback, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and presently hanged after their arrival at the place of execution. He suffered about the age of twenty or twenty-one.

Edmund Arrowsmith was born at a place called Haddock, in the pa

rish of Winwick, five miles from Warrington and seven from Wigan, in 1585. His father was Robert Arrowsmith, a yeoman or farmer in that county; his mother, Margery, was a gentlewoman of the ancient family of the Gerards. Both his parents were Catholics, and great sufferers for their religion, as were also their fathers before them; for Thurstan Arrowsmith, grandfather to our Edmund, after the loss of goods, and frequent vexations from the pursuivants, suffered a long imprisonment, and died in bonds a confessor of Christ; and Mr. Nicholas Gerard, his grandfather by the mother's side, being a constant professor of the Catholic faith, was, by order of sir Thomas Gerard, his own brother, forcibly carried to the Protestant church (at a time when he was labouring under a violent fit of the gout, so that he could not stir) and there placed over against the minister. But instead of joining with the minister or congregation in their service, he sung psalms in Latin, with so loud a voice, that the minister could not be heard, which obliged them to carry him away out of church.

As to the father and mother of Mr. Edmund, it is related, that after divers other troubles and losses sustained for their conscience, they had their house searched by the pursuivants, who, with their swords, tried every bed and every hole in which they suspected any priest or priestly utensils might be laid, and then they and all their family were tied two and two together and drove to Lancaster jail, leaving at home four little children, one of whom was our Edmund, whom the pursuivants had taken out of bed in their shirts, and left standing in the cold, not suffering any of the family to dress them, till some neighbours, compassionating their case, came in and did this charitable office for the helpless infants. After this and some other imprisonments, from which he redeemed himself by money, the father of our confessor went abroad with his brother Peter, to be out of the way of these vexations, and they both served for a time in the wars in Holland. Peter died at Brussels of a wound received in the wars, and was there honourably interred. Robert, the father of our Edmund, went to Douay, there to visit his other brother, Dr. Edmund Arrowsmith, a man of great learning and piety, priest and confessor in the college, and after some time returned again to England, and there made a pious end, having foretold his own death some time before.

Mrs. Arrowsmith being left a widow, and in low circumstances, a venerable priest in that county, to ease her burden, took the boy Edmund (then called Brian from the name by which he was christened) into his service, to bring him up to learning. Whilst he frequented the schools his daily practise was, as he went to school in the morning, to a place about a mile distant from home, to recite in the way with his brethren, the little hours of our lady's office, and when he was coming home at night, the vespers and complin; and that his first care after he came home was to withdraw into his oratory, and there to perform his customary devotions of the Jesus psalter, the seven penitential psalms, &c. And such was the sweetness of his temper and his comportment, that even his Protestant schoolmasters were very fond of him. At length, having tried in vain to pass over to one of the Spanish seminaries, he succeeded better in his attempt to go into Flanders, where he was received in the English college of Douay in December, 1605.