“She could not but admit the truth of this; yet she found it hard to believe that it was so. ‘I pray you,’ she said, ‘not to be [pg clii] angry with me, if I ask further whether any other Catholic knows him to be a Priest but you. Does so-and-so know him?’
“ ‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘and goes to confession to him.’
“Then she mentioned other names, and at last that of my hostess, who lived in the neighbourhood, but ten miles off.
“ ‘Does she, too, know him as a Priest, and deal with him as such?’
“ ‘Why,’ said Master Lee, ‘she not only knows him as a Priest, but has given herself, and all her household, and all that she has, to be directed by him, and takes no other guide but him.’
“Then at length she confessed herself satisfied.
“ ‘You will find him, however,’ added Master Lee, ‘quite a different man when he has put off his present character.’
“This she acknowledged the next day, when she saw me in my soutane and other priestly garments, such as she had never before seen. She made a most careful confession, and came to have so great an opinion of my poor powers, that she gave herself entirely to my direction, meditated great things, which, indeed, she carried out, and carries out still.
“When this matter was thus happily terminated, we all three consulted together, how we could induce her husband to enter also into St. Peter's net. Now, it so happened that he had fallen sick in London, and his wife on hearing it determined to go and nurse him. We, however, went up before her, and, travelling more expeditiously, had time to deal with him before she came. I spoke to him of the uncertainty of life, and the certainty of misery, not only in this life, but especially in the next, unless we provided against it: and I showed him that we have here no abiding city, but must look for one to come. As affliction oftentimes brings sense, so it happened in his case; for we found but little difficulty in gaining his goodwill. And as he was a man of solid sense and excellent heart, he laid a firm foundation from the beginning. He prepared himself well for confession, after being taught the way; and when he learnt that I was a Priest, he felt no such difficulty in believing as his wife had done, because he had known similar cases; but he rather rejoiced at having found a confessor who had experience among persons [pg cliii] of his rank of life, and with whom he could deal at all times without danger of its being known that he was dealing with a Priest. After his reconciliation, he began on his part to be anxious about his wife, and wished to consult with us how best to bring her to the Catholic religion. We both smiled at this, but said nothing at that time, determining to wait till his wife came up to town, that we might witness how each loving soul would strive to win the other.
“Certainly they were a favoured pair. Both gave themselves wholly to God's service, and the husband afterwards sacrificed all his property, his liberty, nay, even his life, for God's Church, as I shall relate hereafter. For this was that Sir Everard Digby, Knight, of whom later on I should have had to say many things, if so much had not been already written and published about him and his companions. But never in any of these writings has justice been done to the sincerity of his intention, nor the circumstances properly set forth which would put his conduct in its true light.