in the Divine will; using those words of Job"The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord "—adding that he was in good hopes that now a short time would put an end to his mortal life, and all its miseries; to be succeeded by true and everlasting joys.

The last six days before execution he prepared himself by a rigorous fast (Dod, in his "Church History of England," says, "Only upon bread and water, with now and then an apple"), spending whole nights in meditation and prayer. He took leave of his fellow-prisoners, earnestly entreating them at his last conflict, and thanked his chief gaoler for his kindness, though he had little or none to acknowledge, and while drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, he was met by Mr Bunny and Mr Pace, who tormented him, loading him with injurious reproaches. After a few replies, he said, "Good Mr Pace, be so kind as to let me be quiet this short time I have to live;" this he several times repeated. Then, looking up to heaven, he began the Psalm, "Ad te levavi oculos meos."

According to the sentence, he was thrown off the ladder, cut down alive and quartered, and in spite of the Lord Mayor and Magistrates, fragments of the Confessor's bones or clothing were carried off as relics, so great was the veneration of the Roman Catholics, both for his virtues, and the cause for which he suffered. The execution took

place at York, March 15th, 1583. Mr Wood (a Protestant himself) in his "Athenæ Oxon," page 24, says, "This Mr Hart was hanged, drawn, and quartered, for being a Roman priest."

In Dr Bridgewater's "Concertatio," some of Hart's letters have been published. In these he exhorts the prisoners for conscience' sake to neglect no opportunity of receiving the Sacraments, as a most powerful means of divine grace; lamenting that he himself was deprived of the benefit, no priest being allowed to come near him.

The following is a letter to his mother :

"MOST DEAR AND LOVING MOTHER,-Seeing that by the severity of the laws, by the wickedness of our times, and by God's holy ordinance and appointment, my days in this life are cut off,-of duty and conscience I am bound (being far from you in body, but in spirit very near you), not only to crave your daily blessing, but also to write these few words to you. You have been a most loving, natural, and tender mother to me; you have suffered great pains in my birth and bringing me up; you have toiled and turmoiled to feed and sustain me, your first and eldest child; and, therefore, for these and all other your motherly cherishings, I give you most humble and hearty thanks, wishing that it lay in me to show myself as loving, natural, and dutiful a son, as you have showed yourself a most tender and careful mother. But I cannot express my love, show my duty, declare

my affection, testify my good-will towards you, so little am I able to do, and so much I think myself bound unto you. I had meant this spring to have seen you, if God had granted me my health and liberty; but now never shall I see you, nor any of yours in this life again; trusting yet in heaven to meet you, to see you, and to live everlastingly with you.

"Alas! sweet mother, why do you weep ?-why do you lament?-why do you take so heavily my honourable death? Know you not that we are born once to die, and that always in this life we may not live? Know you not how vain, how wicked, how inconstant, how miserable this life of ours is? Do you not consider my calling, my

estate, my profession? Do you not remember that I am going to a place of all pleasure and felicity-why then do you weep? Why do you mourn? why do you cry out? But perhaps you will say, I weep not so much for your death, as I do for that you are hanged, drawn and quartered. My sweet mother, it is the favourablest, honourablest, and happiest death that ever could have chanced unto me. I die not for knavery, but for verity; I die not for treason, but for religion; I die not for any ill-demeanour or offence committed, but only for my faith, for my conscience, for my priesthood, for my blessed Saviour Jesus Christ; and to tell you truth, if I had ten thousand lives, I am bound to lose them all, rather than to break my faith, to lose my soul, to offend my God.

"We are not made to eat, drink, sleep, to go bravely, to feed daintily, to live in this wretched vale continually; but to serve God, to please God, to fear God, and to keep His commandments; which, when we cannot be suffered to do, then rather must we choose to lose our lives, than to desire our lives.

"Neither am I alone in this kind of suffering; for there have of late suffered twenty, or twentytwo priests, just, virtuous, and learned men, for the self-same cause for the which I do now suffer. You see Mr James Fenn and John Bodie are imprisoned for religion; and I daresay they are desirous to die the same death which I shall die.

"Be contented, therefore, good mother; stay your weeping, and comfort yourself that you have born a son that has lost his life and liberty for God Almighty's sake, who shed His most precious blood for him.

I

"If I did desire or look for promotion, credit, or estimation in this world, I could do as others do; but alas! I pass not for this trish-trash. contemn this wretched world, I detest the pleasures and commodities thereof, and only desire to be in heaven with God, where I trust I shall be, before this my last letter come to you.

"Be of good cheer, then, my most loving mother, and cease from weeping, for there is no cause why you should do so. Tell me, for God's sake, would you not be glad to see me a bishop, a king, or an emperor? Yes, verily, I daresay you would. How

glad then may you be to see me a martyr, a saint, a most glorious and bright star in heaven. The joy of this life is nothing, and the joy of the after-life is everlasting; and therefore thrice happy may you think yourself that your son William is gone from earth to heaven, and from a place of misery to a place of all felicity.

"I wish I were near to comfort you; but because that cannot be, I beseech you, even for Christ Jesus' sake, to comfort yourself.

"You see how God hath brought me up, how He hath blessed me many ways; a thousand times then, unhappy should I be, if for His sake I should not lose this miserable life, to gain that blessed and eternal life wherein He is.

"I can say no more, but desire you to be of good cheer, because I myself am well. If I had lived, I would have holpen you in your age, as you have holpen me in my youth. But now I must desire God to help you, and my brethren, for I cannot. Good mother, be contented with that which God hath appointed for my perpetual comfort; and now, in your old days, serve God after the old Catholic manner; pray unto Him daily, beseech Him heartily to make you a member of His Church, and that He will save your soul; for Jesus' sake, good mother, serve God. Read that book that I gave you, and die a member of Christ's Body, and then one day we shall meet in heaven by God's grace.

"Recommend me to my father-in-law, to my