“After this they both came to see me at my residence in the country. But while there he was again taken ill, and that so violently and dangerously, that all the Oxford doctors despaired of his life. As, therefore, in all likelihood he had not long to live, he began to prepare himself earnestly for a good death, and his wife to think of a more perfect way of life. For some days she gave herself to learn the method of meditation, and to find out God's will with regard to her future life, how she might best direct it to His glory. To be brief, she came to this determination, that if her husband should die, she would devote herself entirely to good works, observe perpetual chastity and exact obedience; that as for her property, which would be very extensive as they were without children, she would spend it all in pious uses according to my direction; she would herself live where and in what style I judged best for the advancement of God's honour and the good of her own soul; and she added that her desire was to wear poor clothing wherever she might be, and observe all the rules of poverty. All this was to be while the persecution might last in England. If, however, it should cease, and England should become Catholic, then she would give her house (a very large and fine one), and all the property her father left her, for [pg cliv] the foundation of a College of the Society: and this would have been amply sufficient for a first-rate foundation.
“This was her resolution, but God had otherwise arranged, and for that time happily. For when all the Oxford doctors gave up Sir Everard's case as hopeless, I, who loved him much, did not lose heart, but without his knowledge I sent for a certain Cambridge doctor, a Catholic, and a man of much learning and experience, whom I had known to cure cases abandoned by other physicians. On his arrival at our house, where Sir Everard Digby then was with his wife, after telling him all about the patient, I got him to examine the sick man himself, and learn from him all about his habit of body and general constitution. Then I asked him if he thought there was any hope. He answered, ‘If Sir Everard will venture to put himself entirely in my hands, I have good hopes, with the help of God, of bringing him round.’
“The patient on hearing this said to me, ‘Since this doctor is known to your Reverence, and is chosen by you, I give myself willingly into his hands.’
“By this doctor, then, he was cured beyond all expectation, and so completely restored to perfect health that there was not a more robust or stalwart man in a thousand. He was a most devoted friend to me, just as if he had been my twin-brother. And this name of brother we always used in writing to each other. How greatly he was attached me, may be seen from the following incident. Once when I had gone to a certain house to assist a soul in agony, he got to learn that I was in great danger there: upon this he at first expressed a terrible distress, and then immediately said to his wife that if I should be taken, he was resolved to watch the roads by which I should be carried prisoner to London, and take with him a sufficient number of friends and servants to rescue me by force from those who had me in custody; and if he should miss me on the road, he would accomplish my release one way or another, even though he should spend his whole fortune in the venture. Such, then, was his attachment to me at that time, and this he retained always in the same—nay, rather in an increased—degree to the end of his life; as he showed by the way he spoke of me when pleading for his life before the public court. At this time, however, as I said, he was [pg clv] restored to health; and he and his wife got together a little domestic church after the pattern of that in our own house, and built a chapel with a sacristy, furnishing it with costly and beautiful vestments, and obtained a Priest of the Society for their chaplain, who remained with them to Sir Everard's death.
“What was done by this family was done by others also. For many of the Catholic gentry coming to our house, and seeing the arrangements and manner of life, followed the example themselves, establishing a sort of congregation in each of their houses, providing handsome altar furniture, making convenient arrangements for the residence of Priests, and showing especial respect and reverence to them.
“Among those who came to this determination was a certain lady resident near Oxford, whose husband was indeed a Catholic, but overmuch devoted to worldly pursuits. She, however, gave herself to be directed by me as far as she could, having such a husband. I often visited them, and was always welcomed by both; and there I established one of our Fathers, Edward Walpole, whom I mentioned at an early part of this narrative as having left a large patrimony for the sake of following Christ our Lord, in the first year of my residence in England.
“There was another lady also who had a similar wish: she was a relative of my hostess, and she also resided in the county of Oxford. Her husband was a Knight of very large property, who hoped to be created a Baron, and still hopes for it. This lady came on a visit to our house, and wished to learn the way of meditating, which I taught her; but as her husband was a heretic, it was impossible for her to have a Priest in her house, as she greatly wished. She took, however, the resolution of supporting a Priest, who should come to her at convenient times. She resolved, also, to make a meditation every day, and to give one or two hours daily to spiritual reading, when she had no guests in the house. On her coming to me every six months, I found that she had never omitted her meditation, nor her daily examination of conscience, except on one occasion when her husband insisted on her staying with the guests. Yet she had a large and busy household to superintend, and a continual coming and going of guests.
“It happened on one occasion when I was in this lady's house, and was sitting with her after dinner, the servants having gone down to get their own dinner, that suddenly a guest was shown up who had just arrived. This was an Oxford Doctor of Divinity, a heretic of some note and a persecutor of Catholics; his name was Dr. Abbot.[121] He had just before this published a book against Father Southwell, who had been executed, and Father Gerard, who had escaped from the Tower, because these two had defended the doctrine of equivocation, which he chose to impugn. After this publication, the good man had been made Dean of Winchester, a post which brought him in a yearly income of eight thousand florins [800l.]. This man then, as I said, was shown up, and entered the dining-room, dressed in a sort of silk soutane coming down to his knees, as is the manner of their chief ministers. We were in appearance sitting at cards, though when the servants had all left the room we had laid the cards down to attend to better things. Hearing, however, this gentleman announced, we resumed our game, so that he found us playing, with a good sum of money on the table.
“I may here mention, that when I played thus with Catholics, with the view of maintaining among a mixed company the character in which I appeared, I always agreed that each one should have his money back afterwards, but should say an Ave Maria for each piece that was returned to him. It was on these terms that I frequently played with my brother Digby and other Catholics, where it appeared necessary, so that the by-standers thought we were playing for money, and were in hot earnest over it.
“So also this minister never conceived the slightest suspicion of me, but after the first courtesies began to talk at a pretty pace: for this is the only thing those chattering ministers can do, who possess no solid knowledge, but by the persuasive words of [pg clvii] human wisdom lead souls astray, and subvert houses, teaching things that are not convenient. So he, after much frivolous talk, began to tell us the latest news from London; how a certain Puritan had thrown himself down from the steeple of a church, having left it in writing that he knew himself to be secure of his eternal salvation. About this writing, however, the learned Doctor said nothing, but I had heard the particulars myself from another quarter.