And from his wife a brief epistle too,

Which told her sorrows since their last adieu:

VI.

How came the messengers with arméd men

To search her mansion for “the heretic;”

How his escape provoked their wrath—and then

How they condemned him for his feigning sick;

But with the thought consoled themselves again,

That he had perished in the tempest thick;

God’s righteous retribution, setting free