his life-the rope being then about his neck-he replied,

"I will not swerve a jot from my faith for anything; yea, if I had ten thousand lives, I would rather lose them all than forsake the Catholic faith in any point;" on which the sheriff cried, "Despatch him, since he is so stubborn."

"Looking back on Mr Richardson, who was then in quartering," continues Challoner, "he said, 'Lord Jesus, have mercy upon them; O Lord, give me grace to endure to the end; Lord, give me constancy to the end!' Which saying he uttered almost for all the time that Richardson was in quartering, saving once that he said, 'Thy soul pray for me!' and at the last he said, 'O Lord, what a spectacle hast Thou made unto me!' which he repeated twice or thrice."

Then the head of Richardson was held up, and the executioner said, as was the custom, "God save the Queen." To which Cottam said, "I beseech God to bless her and save her as my Sovereign Queen," &c. They willed him to say, "and supreme head in matters ecclesiastical."

To whom he answered, "If I would have put in those words, I had been discharged almost two years since."

Afterwards he uttered the words in Latin, "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me not be confounded for ever"-and again, in Latin, "O Lord, Thou hast suffered more for me!" three times repeating "plura "-more.

C

He then added more, wishing well to the Queen, and said that all he did here suffer was " for saving his soul;" desiring "Almighty God, for His sweet Son's sake, that He would vouchsafe to take him to His mercy,"-for that, "Him only he had offended." To this he added other prayers, and was in the middle of his "Ave," when the fatal cart was drawn away.

Lewis, of Grenada, gives an account of his death from an eye-witness. So Challoner tells

us.

The next martyr, of whom we would give some account, is Mr WILLIAM HART, admitted as a student at Oxford, A.D. 1572.

Dod, in his "Church History of England," vol. ii., speaks of him at page 102 and 105; and states of him that "he was generally allowed to be a person of singular parts and piety, and not inferior to Campion, either as to his pen, or fluency of discourse. He was also very desirable and diverting in conversation; an instance whereof we meet in one of his letters, a little before he suffered. He writes to a friend, that he was in hopes of laying out his substance on a very valuable purchase; and that the day was appointed when the bargain was to be sealed." "And if," says he, "neither the gallows nor the rope fails me, nor, what I mostly suspect, my own unworthiness deprives me of it, I am in a fair way of being master of it."

"Several of his letters are extant and print,

which," says Dod, "discover his extraordinary zeal and resolution. In one, he adviseth all Catholics either not to appear at his execution, or to behave themselves with Christian courage on that occasion." In another, "he prescribes a form of prayer to his little flock, which he desires they will make use of to obtain for him the grace of perseverance; and that he may be able to carry off the prize he is running for." He wrote about ten letters to different persons, which are all made public. Dr Lingard says, that he was chained five days to the floor of his prison, and led to the rack from thence.

A more particular account of that is given by Dr Challoner, with some extracts from his letters, which we here subjoin.

Dr Challoner states that he was born in the city of Wells, Somersetshire, and when at Lincoln College, Oxford, his happy genius and great talents were admired. Disliking the religion and manners of Oxford, he went to Douay to pursue his studies there; and from thence to Rheims. He was then labouring under a terrible internal disease; and after trying other means, his physicians declared that there was no remedy for him but a surgical operation.

In the hope of prolonging his life for the purpose of devoting it to God's service, he consented; and offered up his sufferings as a penance for his sins; undergoing them with great courage. During the operation, his soul was so fixed in

God by prayer, that he scarcely seemed to notice it, to the great astonishment of the surgeon and others.

After his recovery he was sent to Rome, and thence to England after his ordination. He laboured diligently and successfully in his vocation in Yorkshire; for besides a singular piety towards God, a great love for his neighbours, and an extraordinary zeal for the Roman Catholic faith, his behaviour was so winning as to make him agreeable to all, and his eloquence (for which he was called another Campion), joined to his extraordinary gift in preaching, easily made his way to the hearts of his hearers. His devotion to the tremendous Mysteries was so great, he was often observed to shed abundance of tears.

His charity towards numbers of poor Roman Catholics that were prisoners for conscience' sake, was remarkable; who, in York especially, were daily perishing through the many incommodities of their imprisonment, and the barbarity of their keepers. These he daily visited, refusing no labour, fearing no danger, for their comfort; encouraging them to suffer with patience, procuring them any assistance in his power, hearing their confessions, and administering to them the Sacraments.

The night Mr Lacy and others were apprehended, who had been assisting at Mass in York Castle, Hart was one of the company. He escaped with difficulty; but within six months he fell into the hands of the persecutors, who rushed into his

chamber the night after Christmas-day, when he was in bed and asleep, and seized upon him.

After an examination by the High Sheriff, and then by the Lord President of the North, he was sent a prisoner to the Castle; where he was lodged in a dungeon, which was his only chamber to his dying day. And as he could not help showing by his countenance, and his words, his great joy in suffering for such a cause, they loaded him with double irons, on St John's Day, to tame his courage; but all in vain. In proportion as he suffered for his faith, he found still greater consolation in Christ.

During his confinement, he had several conferences with Protestant ministers in York, Dean Hutton, Mr Bunny, Mr Pace, and Mr Palmer. At the bar the judge asked him why he had left his native country, and how he had been employed since his return,—to which he replied that it was to acquire virtue and learning; that he took holy orders, being called by a certain impulse from God; that renouncing the world, he might be more at liberty to serve God; and that his time in England had been spent in instructing the ignorant and administering the Sacraments. In reply to their charge of treason, he said his obedience to the Pope in spiritual matters, was in no way inconsistent with his allegiance to the Queen. In vain his protestations of perfect innocence; he was condemned to die, as in cases of high treason.

He received the sentence with a full acquiescence