Towards the middle of September he received intelligence that evidence had been gathering against him, and that one or two were come from Lancashire under guard; and that he would be brought before the Commissioners again immediately.
Within two days this came about. He was sent for across the water to the Tower, and after waiting an hour or two with his gaoler downstairs in the basement of the White Tower, was taken up into the great Hall where the Council sat. There was a table at the farther end where they were sitting, and as Anthony looked round he saw through openings all round in the inner wall the little passage where the sentries walked, and heard their footfalls.
The preliminaries of identification and the like had been disposed of at previous examinations before Mr. Young—a name full of sinister suggestiveness to the Catholics; and so, after he had been given a seat at a little distance from the table behind which the Commissioners sat, he was questioned minutely as to his journey in the North of England.
“What were you there for, Mr. Norris?” inquired the Secretary of the Council.
“I went to see friends, and to do my business.”
“Then that resolves itself into two heads: One, Who are your friends. Two, What was your business?”
Now it had been established beyond a doubt at previous examinations that he was a priest; a student of Douai who had apostatised had positively identified him; so Anthony answered boldly:
“My friends were Catholics; and my business was the reconciling of souls to their Creator.”
“And to the Pope of Rome,” put in Wade.
“Who is Christ’s Vicar,” continued Anthony.