In fine, he was condemned to die, and was sent back first to prison, where he occupied himself in prayer, prostrate on the ground. He made a public confession of his faith at the gallows, and made the sign of the cross upon it, which being observed by the hangman, he scoffed at him, saying,

"Thou hast served the Pope,

But he has brought to the rope,

And the hangman shall have thy coat."

Lawrence smiled at his rhymes, which the other took in ill part, and gave him a great box on the The good young man meekly replied, "Why do you do so to me? I never in my life gave you any cause to treat me in this manner."

ear.

He was executed at Winchester in the twentyfirst year of his age, 1591.

At the time of which we now have to treat, Queen Elizabeth was dead, and some abatement of the persecution was expected. At first, matters seemed to promise well. But it was not long before James I. ordered all priests to depart out of the kingdom, including those who were at that time in prison, and remain in banishment for ever. (See "Howe's Chronicle," p. 834.)

Stow also records that "The fourth of June this yeare, 1610, the king by proclamation commanded all Romayne priests and seminaries to depart this kingdome by the fourth day of July next, and not to returne upon pain of severity of the law." (Page 906.)

But this was not the only cruel and aggressive

act towards his Roman Catholic subjects, on the part of the king.

Let the reader judge for himself.

JOHN SUGAR, priest, was born at Womborn, in Staffordshire, of a noted family in those parts, and was educated at Merton College, Oxford; and afterwards went to the English College at Douay; was made priest, and sent on the mission to England. Here he was much engaged in spiritual labours amongst the poor in the counties of Warwick, Stafford, and Worcestershire.

To make the story of his pious, humble, and charitable life as brief as possible, suffice it to say that the persecutors arrested and committed him. and a brother companion to prison at Warwick, where they were left a whole year. Mr Burgoyne, being then a justice of the county, having sent a warrant to catch him on the 8th of July, in the first year of King James, Judge Kingsmill condemned him, for being a priest, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, at the meeting of the Assizes in that month the following year.

When his friends came to see him on the morning of his execution, he said, "Be ye all merry, for we have not occasion of sorrow, but of joy; for although I shall have a sharp dinner, yet, I trust, in Jesus Christ, I shall have a most sweet supper."

He also desired God to forgive the judge and all his apprehenders and persecutors. As he

passed on the hurdle to the gallows, he gave money to fifty poor people. Being arrived, he prayed, and that being done, he was stripped to his shirt, and, going up the ladder, he said, "I thank God I can climb pretty well to-day;" and as he stood upon it, he said very cheerfully to the people, "Be it known to you, good people, that I come hither to die for my conscience.” After a few more remarks, a rope was put round his neck by a boy of eighteen. The martyr blessed the rope with the sign of the cross, saying, "I came into the world with the sign of the cross, and with the sign of the cross I go out of it again."

"How dost thou prove that?" said the undersheriff.

"I make account," said Mr Sugar, "that I was not in this world as a Christian, till I was signed with the sign of the cross in baptism; for then I first received my spiritual birth." He then prayed for the King, Queen, and Prince, and forgave all accessory to his death, by name. Then the hangman said, "I pray you, good father, forgive me too."-"I forgive thee, boy, with all my heart," said he. Then turning to the people with a cheerful countenance, he said, "Good people, I die willingly, for I shall get a place of joy; and I beseech Jesus to receive my soul; and I beseech all the company of angels, martyrs, and saints to accompany my soul to that blessed place. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and

I beseech God that all that are here present may be partakers of that joy to which I am going.

Then he cried, "Jesus, Jesus! receive my soul !" Unto which the people responded, "Amen, amen." Being asked if he were ready, he said, "I am ready in Jesus."

Thereupon he was turned off the ladder and cut down before he was dead, and the usual butchery enacted, adding that of cutting off his head, and then setting his quarters on the gates of Warwick, He suffered on the 16th of July 1604.

ROBERT GRISSOLD (or GRESWOLD), layman, was born at Romington, Warwickshire, and was servant to Mr Sheldon of Broadway in Worcestershire, and was an unlearned, but simple, upright, holy man. He was apprehended by his cousin Clement Grissold, and taken with Mr Sugar before Mr Burgoyne.

During his trial, a justice of peace said, "Grissold, Grissold, go to church, or else thou shalt be hanged." "Then, God's will be done," he replied.

The morning before he suffered he spent an hour in prayer; and seeing a woman in the prison weeping for him, he said, "Good woman, why do you weep? Here is no place of weeping, but of rejoicing; for you must come into the Bridegroom's chamber not with tears, but with rejoicing." The woman replied, "I hoped you should have had your life."."—"I do not want it now," he rejoined, "for I should be loth to lose this opportunity

Then a

offered me to die. God's will be done." Roman Catholic maid said, "It is well said, friend Robert, for it is nothing to suffer death for so good a cause." Whereupon he said to those present, "Look that ye all continue to the end." As he went on foot to the gallows one said he had better go a cleaner way, and not follow Mr Sugar through the mire; to whom he replied, "I have not thus far followed him to leave him now for a little mire ;" and so through the mire he went after him.

Arrived at the place of his martyrdom, he prayed a good while on his knees, and though by nature he was so timorous and weak-he once had swooned on pricking his thumb with an awl-yet by the grace of God he was so strengthened that even the spectacle of Mr Sugar's bleeding body when quartered in no way terrified him; but, on the contrary, when a good woman stepped between him and the horrible sight when the butchery was going on, lest it should terrify him, he took her by the arm and said, "Stand away, for I thank God the sight doth nothing terrify me."

Seeing the halter with which he was to be hanged, he took and dipped it in Mr Sugar's blood, and, ascending the ladder, said, "Bear witness, good people, that I die here not for theft, nor for felony, but for my conscience." He then forgave his persecutors, and the hangman said his "Confiteor." Often calling upon the Name of Jesus, and commending his soul into the hands of Almighty God, he was turned off the ladder, and hung till dead.