“Then they took him to the torture-chamber, and hung him up in the way I have before described, and tortured him cruelly for the space of three hours. But nothing could they wring from him that they could use either against me or against others, so that from that time they gave up all hope of obtaining anything against any one from him either by force or fear. Consequently they tortured him no more, but kept him in the closest custody for about four months to try and tire him into compliance. Failing also in this, and seeing that their pains availed them nothing, they sent him to another prison, where prisoners are usually sent who are awaiting execution, and probably it was their intention to deal that way with him, but God otherwise determined. For after a long detention here, and having been allowed a little communication with other Catholic prisoners, he was asked by a certain [pg cxliii] Priest to assist him in making his escape. Turning his attention, therefore, to the matter, he found a way by which he delivered both the Priest and himself from captivity.
“I ought not, however, to omit an incident that happened during his detention in the Tower, since it is in such things that the dealings of God's providence are often to be very plainly recognized. While he was under examination about me and others of the Society, Wade, who was at that time the chief persecutor, asked him if he knew Garnett. John said he did not.
“ ‘No?’ said Wade, with a sour smile; ‘and you don't know his house in the Spital[118] either, I dare say! I don't mind letting you know,’ he continued, ‘now that I have you safe, that I am acquainted with his residence, and that we are sure of having him here in a day or two to keep you company. For when he comes to London he puts up at that house, and then we shall catch him.’
“John knew well that the house named was Father Garnett's resort, and was in great distress to find that the secret had been betrayed to the enemy; and, though kept as close as possible, yet he managed in a few days by God's good providence to get an opportunity of sending some little article wrapped up in blank paper to a friend in London. His friend on receiving it carefully smoothed out the paper and held it to the fire, knowing that John would be likely to communicate by the means of orange-juice if he had the opportunity, and there he found it written that this residence of Father Garnett's had been betrayed, and that Father Garnett must be warned of it. This was instantly done, and in this way the Father was saved, for otherwise he would assuredly, as Wade had said, have betaken himself to that house in a day or two. Now, however, he not only did not go, but took all his things away, so that when the house was searched they found nothing. Had it not been for this providential warning from our greatest enemy, they would [pg cxliv] have found plenty; they would have found him, his books, altar furniture, and other things of a similar nature. Father Garnett, then, escaped this time by John's good help, as I had done previously.
“After his escape John came to me, but though I desired much to keep him, it was out of the question, for he was now so marked a man that his presence would have been a continual danger for me and all my friends. For I was wont in the country to go openly to the houses of Catholic gentlemen, and it might well happen that John might come across persons that knew him, and would know me through him. Whereas but very few of the enemy knew me, for I was always detained in close custody, and none but Catholics saw me in prison, nay, such Catholics only as I knew to be specially trustworthy. I had, indeed, been examined publicly in London several times, but the persons concerned in the examinations very seldom left town, and if they had done so I should have been warned of it instantly, and should have taken good care never to trust myself in their neighbourhood. So I put John with Father Garnett, to stay in quiet hiding for a time; and when opportunity offered sent him over to Father Persons, that he might obtain, what he had long hoped for, admission to the Society. He was admitted at Rome,[119] and lived there for six or seven years as a Lay-brother, much esteemed, I believe, by everybody. I can on my part testify about him to the greater glory of God, and that the more allowably because I believe he has died in England before this present writing, whither he returned with a consumption on him: I can, I say, testify that for nearly six years that he was with me in England, and had his hands full of business for me, though he had to do with all sorts of men in all sorts of places (for while I was engaged upstairs with the gentry and nobility, he was associating downstairs with the servants, often very indifferent characters), yet the whole of this time he so guarded his heart and his soul that I never found him to have been even in danger of mortal sin. Truly his was an innocent soul, and endowed with great prudence and cleverness.
“But now that I have brought the history of John Lilly to its close, it is time to return to myself, who, having just escaped one danger, had like to have fallen into a second and still greater one, had not God again interposed His hand.”
XXIII.
“I mentioned just now that one of my hostess' servants told a friend of his, but an enemy of ours, that I habitually resided at his mistress' house, and that at that particular time I was at such a house in London. How this house was searched, and how they seized my companion and my manuscripts, but missed me, I have related. The Council, therefore, now knowing my residence in the country, issued a commission to some Justices of the Peace in that county to search this lady's house for a Priest. It had, in fact, began to be talked of in the county that she had taken this grand house in order that she might harbour Priests there in larger numbers and with greater freedom, because it was more private; and in this people were not far wrong.”
“Now at this time, that is, soon after my return from London, we had driven over to the new house to make arrangements for our removal thither, and with the special object of determining where to construct hiding-places. To this end we had Little John with us, whom I have before mentioned as very clever at constructing these places, and whom Father Garnett had lent to us for a time for this purpose. Having made all the necessary arrangements we left Little John behind, and Hugh Sheldon also to help him, who is now at Rome with Father Persons in the room of John Lilly. These two, whom we had always found most faithful, were to construct the hiding-places, and to be the only ones beside ourselves to know anything about them. The rest of us, however, returned the same day to our hostess' own house, and by the advice of one of the servants, God so disposing it, we came back a different way, as being easier for the carriage. Had we returned by the way we went, the searchers would have come early to the house where we were, and most probably catching us entirely unprepared, would have found what they came to seek. The fact was that the road by which we went to [pg cxlvi] the new house ran through a town, where some of the enemy were on the watch and had seen us pass, but not seeing us return they concluded that we were spending the night at the new house, and went there the first thing in the morning to search.
“But the house was so large that, although they had a numerous body of followers, they were not able to surround it entirely, nor to watch all the outlets so narrowly, but what Little John managed to make off safely. Hugh Sheldon they caught, but could get nothing out of him, so they sent him afterwards to prison at Wisbech, and from thence later to some other prison in company with many Priests, and at last in the same good company into exile.