“At last these four leopards were let in. They raged about the house, looking everywhere, and prying into the darkest corners with candles. They took four hours over the business; but failed in their search,[38] and only brought out the forbearance of the Catholics in suffering, and their own spite and obstinacy in seeking. At last they took themselves off, after getting paid, forsooth, for their trouble. So pitiful is the lot of the Catholics, [pg xl] that those who come with a warrant to annoy them in this or in other way, have to be paid for so doing by the suffering party instead of by the authorities who send them, as though it were not enough to endure wrong, but they must also pay for their endurance of it. When they were gone, and were now some way off, so that there was no fear of their returning, as they sometimes do, a lady came and summoned out of the den, not one, but many Daniels. The hiding-place was underground, covered with water at the bottom, so that I was standing with my feet in water all the time. We had there Father Garnett, Father Southwell, and Father Ouldcorne (three future martyrs), Father Stanny, and myself, two Secular Priests, and two or three lay gentlemen. Having thus escaped that day's danger, Father Southwell and I set off the next day together, as we had come. Father Ouldcorne stayed, his dwelling or residence being” at Henlip House, “not far off.”
VI.
But Father Gerard's good works were now to be interfered with by the treachery of a servant. This man's name was John Frank, and his deposition taken before Justice Young, May 12, 1594,[39] will illustrate Father Gerard's story. The Father introduces the traitor without naming him.
“There is a time for gathering stones together, and a time for scattering them. The time had now come for trying the servants of God, my hosts, and myself along with them. And that they might be more like in their sufferings to their Lord for Whom they suffered, God allowed them to be betrayed by their own servant, whom they loved. He was not a Catholic, nor a servant of the house, but had been once in the service of the second brother, who when he crossed the sea recommended him to his mother and brother. He lived in London, but often used to visit them, and knew nearly everything that happened in either of their houses. I had no reason for suspecting one whom all trusted. Still I never let him see me acting as a Priest, or dressed in such a way as to give him grounds to say that I was one. However, as [pg xli] he acknowledged afterwards, he guessed what I was from seeing his master treat me with such respect; for he nearly always set me two or three miles on my journeys. Often too my host would bear me company to London, where we used at that time to lodge in this servant's house. I had not yet found by experience, that the safest plan was to have a lodging of my own. Such were the facts which, as the traitor afterwards stated, gave rise to his suspicions. Feeling sure that he could get more than three hundred pieces of silver for the sale of his master, he went to the magistrates and bargained to betray him. They, it seems, sent him for a while to spy out who were Priests, and how many there were of them haunting the houses of the widow and her son.
“The widow's house was first searched. The Priest that usually dwelt there was then at home, but escaped for that time by taking refuge in a hiding-place. As for the pious widow, they forced her to go to London, there to appear before the Judges who tried cases concerning Catholics. At her appearance she answered with the greatest courage, more like a free woman than a grievously persecuted prisoner. She was thrown into gaol.” From Frank we learn that the search was made Dec. 26, 1593.
“He saith that one Brewster, a Priest, being a tall man with a white flaxen beard, was at old Mrs. Wiseman's house at Northend from Michaelmas till Christmas last, and was in the house when the pursuivants were there on Wednesday the 26th of December last, hid in a privy place in a chamber. And William Suffield, Mr. William Wiseman's man, came thither for him on Thursday in the Christmas week, at five o'clock in the night, and carried him to Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks (as this examinate heard). And afterwards Suffield came again and rode with old Mrs. Wiseman to the Lord Rich's.” The seat of Lord Rich was at Lee Priory, not far from Northend. The widow, therefore, was not arrested on this occasion.
Of the search, Justice Young made the following report to Lord Keeper Puckering.[40] “Right honourable, my humble duty remembered, this is to advertize your honour that the bearers hereof, Mr. Worsley and Mr. Newall,” pursuivants who were Topcliffe's chief aiders in the searches made in the houses of [pg xlii] Catholics, “hath been in Essex at Mrs. Wiseman's house, being a widow, and there they found a Mass a preparing, but the Priest escaped, but they brought from thence Robert Wiseman her son,[41] and William Clarke, a lawyer, and Henry Cranedge, a physician, and Robert Foxe, who doth acknowledge themselves all to be recusants, and do deny to take an oath to answer truly to such matters as shall touch the Queen's Majesty and the State, whereupon I have committed them close prisoners, one from another. Also they found in the said house one Nicholas Norffooke, Samuel Savage, and one Daniell, servants unto the said Mrs. Wiseman, and one Mrs. Ann Wiseman, a widow, and Mary Wiseman her daughter, and Elizabeth Cranedge, and Alice Jenings, wife of Richard Jenings, and Mary Wiseman, daughter to Mr. George Wiseman, of Upminster, and is in Commission of the Peace, and all these in the said house are recusants; wherefore it may stand with your lordship's good liking, I think it were well that they were all sent for hither to be examined, for that, the said Mrs. Jane Wiseman——” and then follows the remembrance of old Mrs. Wiseman's wish that her pilgrimage to the Priests at Wisbech had been barefooted, that we have already given.
“Item, he saith, to return to Frank's examination, “that Mr. Gerard, alias Tanfield, alias Staunton, the Priest Jesuit, was at Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks all the Christmas last, and Richard Fulwood was his man attending on him, and was two years coming and going thither, and was also with Mr. Wiseman in Lancashire a little before Michaelmas was twelve months, as Ralph Willis, who then attended on Master Gerard, told this examinate, and were at the Lady Gerard's house, she being at home.”
“Item, he saith that he hath seen Mr. Gerard dine and sup ordinarily with Mr. Wiseman at his own table in his house at Braddocks about twelve months past, and that at Michaelmas was twelve months they were both together in the examinate's house,—Father Gerard has just told us that they used to go there till he got a lodging of his own—“and Mr. Ormes, the tailor of Fleet-street, [pg xliii] was there with him, and did take measure of Mr. Gerard by the name of Mr. Tanfield, to make him garments.”
“Item, he saith that the said Gerard lay one night at the Lady Mary's in Blackfriars (as he thinketh) a little before Easter last,[42] and Ralph Willis, his servant, lay that night at this examinate's house, and that Richard Fulwood, since his imprisonment in Bridewell at Easter last, wrote a letter and sent it from Bridewell to the Lady Mary's, and there this examinate received it and went down with it to Mr. Gerard, who was at Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks all the Easter last, and hidden in the house while the pursuivants were there, which letters aforesaid this examinate did deliver to Ralph Willis, who carried them immediately to Mr. Gerard. And this examinate saw the letters in Mr. Gerard's hands, and heard him read them. Wherein Fulwood wrote that he expected torture every day, and Mr. Gerard wished that he might bear some of Fulwood's punishment.” ...