CHAPTER VI.

WHEN our pilgrims came to Rheims, they were received with the greatest joy by all those confessors and servants of God that lived there. Campion was specially welcomed by Allen and the rest, for old acquaintance' sake: they had not seen him for eight years or more, so there was no end to their embracing and welcoming the good man; and besides, he and his companions were already looked upon as martyrs. Even from a distance, at Rome, it had seemed no easy thing to get into England without discovery; but fresh difficulties had grown up daily, and at Rheims the missionaries were told of a new proclamation, in which Elizabeth declared that she had notice of the Pope, the King of Spain, the Duke of Florence, and other Catholic princes having made a league against her to invade her realm, at the persuasion of some of her subjects who lived beyond sea. This was easily seen to be a plain preface and introduction to the rigour of persecution which awaited all priests who should convey themselves into the country. Here also they heard of the unfortunate expedition into Ireland, to which, as we have seen, may be attributed much of the severity with which they were to be treated.

Campion, therefore, feeling that the case was somewhat altered, and that there was now less chance of success in the undertaking, went to Allen, and said,

"Well, sir, here now I am; you have desired my going to England, and I am come a long journey, as you see, from Prague to Rome, and from Rome hither. Do you think that my labours in England will countervail all this travail, as well as my absence from Bohemia, where, though I did not much, yet I was not idle nor unemployed, and that also against heretics?" The president answered, "My good father, your labours in Boemeland, though I do not doubt but they were very profitable, yet do I imagine that another man of your Society may supply the same, or at least two or three. But towards England I verily hope that Almighty God will give you strength and grace to supply for many men; and seeing that your obligation is greater towards your own country than towards any other, and the necessity of help more urgent, and the talents that God hath given. you more fit and proper for that than for any other land, doubt you not but that all is Christ's holy providence for the best; and so be you of good comfort." "As for me," said Campion, "all is one; and I hope I am and shall be ever indifferent for all nations and functions whereinsoever my superiors under God shall employ me. I have made a free oblation of myself to His Divine Majesty, both for life and death, and that I hope He will give me grace and force to perform; and this is all I desire."

Campion was glad of an opportunity to preach to the students, for he had not spoken publicly in English for many years. He preached on the text, Ignem veni mittere in terram, and Parsons remembered one principal point which he handled,-"to compare the new religion of England to a fire, which, being once kindled in any one house of a city, obliges all men, as well friends as enemies of the owner, to run to quench it. And to show the

truth of this comparison, he repeated briefly the hurts that this fire had already done in our country: how many goodly churches, monasteries, and other monuments of piety it had devoured in an instant, which our Catholic forefathers had set up in so many hundred years; how many holy orders of religious of both sexes it had dissolved; how many hearts of weak people it had inflamed to marry or live in incest, that had before served God either in virginity or chastity; what devilish division and heat of hatred it had enkindled in the hearts of Englishmen, even amongst those that by nature should be most loving: and having shus showed the fury of the fire, he exhorted his fellow-priests and all the company present to put their helping hands and endeavours to the staying or quenching of the same. And if the water of Catholic doctrine would not serve, nor milk of sweet and holy conversation, they should cast blood also of potent martyrdom, which, it might be hoped, would be accepted for the quenching thereof." While he was describing the outbreak of the conflagration, Bombinus tells us that he cried out "fire, fire, fire," so loud, that the passers-by were going to fetch the water-buckets to put it out. Allen, who heard him, wrote to Rome a few days afterwards,-"Whether he was inspired by his subject, or whether it was a miracle of memory, he spoke English as fluently and as correctly as if he had but yesterday come fresh out of England."

Before the missionaries departed for England, the places of Bishop Goldwell and Dr. Morton, who were obliged to stay behind, were filled up by two priests of Rheims, Dr. Ely and Mr. John Hart. They were also joined by Father Thomas Cottam, an English Jesuit, who had been long labouring in Poland, and who was only ordered to go to his native country for the recovery of

his health. They wisely determined not to risk their whole adventure in one boat, but to divide themselves into small parties, and to reach England by different roads. Dr. Bromburg and Mr. Bruscoe went by Dieppe; Sherwin led his pupil Pascal round by Rouen, where he found young Edward Throckmorton, by whom he wrote an affectionate letter to his old master at Rome, begging Father Alphonsus to accept Throckmorton in his place. It was a fair exchange. Sherwin died a martyr with Campion in England; Throckmorton died after a few years in the odour of sanctity at the English college in Rome. Giblet, Crane, and Kemp went by Abbeville and Boulogne; Dr. Ely, Rishton, Kirby, Hart, and Cottam went by Douai and Dunkirk; lastly, Campion, Parsons, and Ralph Emerson went, on the 6th of June, to St. Omer, where there was a fair college of the order. They had to travel through "a country filled with soldiers of divers sorts and conditions, but all perilous to one who should fall into their hands; but their lot was cast, and they depended on the Master and Commander of all, who led them through without hurt, stay, or trouble." When they reached the residence at St. Omer, the Flemish fathers thought their safe coming thither to be miraculous, and tried to dissuade them from carrying out their undertaking any further. It would be tempting Providence to dare such an accumulation of new dangers. The Queen and Council, they were told, had been informed divers ways of their coming, and were much exasperated. Several spies, who knew all their names, who had lived with them in Rome, and could describe their persons and habit, had given particular information to the Council, who in turn had given it to the searchers and officers of all the ports; so that it was impossible to enter without being taken. Nay, their very

pictures had been taken and sent to the officers, to help in identifying them.

These rumours had been spread by the English Catholic exiles who lived at St. Omer. Among these was one wiser than the rest, Mr. George Chamberlain, a gentleman of a very worshipful house, in banishment for his conscience, who had married a Flemish lady. As a discreet and well-qualified person, he was consulted on the matter, and said that such reports had certainly come from England, and were like enough to be true in general, though he did not believe all the particulars. He did not think that the Council could have found out so much in so little time; yet it would be wise to deliberate well before setting out on such a journey. Parsons and Campion replied that the journey itself was long ago deliberated and determined, and offered to God; so there could be no new deliberation on it, but only about the manner, way, place, and time of effecting it. On this they asked Chamberlain's advice, and begged him to declare it in the presence of the fathers of St. Omer, and to hear the reasons on the other side, so that the journey might be prosecuted with the good liking and approbation of all, without waiting for a new crop of difficulties and perils.

So Chamberlain went with them to the College, where Parsons and Campion expounded their commission and desires, and the reasons for their haste: they said that the dangers, granting them to be as great as was reported, would only grow greater daily; that it did not matter if the Council knew their names, for they had license to change them and their apparel, which they would take care to make very different from the habits in which the spies had seen them; that many men were like each other, and the informers could scarcely have so exact a knowledge of their persons as to identify them under all