Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/548

534 with being connected with them, in all thirty individuals, were, within a period of three months, condemned as traitors, and executed with all the embowelling and other atrocities attending that sentence. Their only crime was the practice of their religion, or the succouring their clergymen.

The queen's attention was next turned to a victim who had long been suffering her severity as a prisoner. This was the Earl of Arundel, who, after enjoying Elizabeth's favour, and leading a gay life at Court, was imprisoned in 1588 for having turned Roman Catholic, and endeavouring to escape out of the kingdom. For a time preceding the coming of the Armada, his imprisonment had been relaxed through a bribe of his countess to the Lieutenant of the Tower. It was, however, suspected that Elizabeth was perfectly cognisant of this connivance, and that the increased liberty was intended as a trap, for he was allowed to go into the cell of an imprisoned priest, where he heard mass, and occasionally met two others of the same faith, Gerard and Shelley. He was now examined on the charge of having prayed for the success of the invaders; and every endeavour was used to induce Bennet, Gerard, and Shelley to give evidence against him. Though much force and menace were used, the result was not successful; yet he was condemned to die. He requested, before his death, to be allowed to see his wife and child, but was not permitted. He was not, however, executed, but allowed to live till 1595, with the expectation that every day or hour his sentence might be put in force. He then died, as it was supposed, of poison—a mode of getting rid of him, after ten years confinement, which many imagined was employed because Elizabeth had executed his father, and shrank from the odium of executing the son also, without some more clearly-established cause. The rancour with which, for some unknown offence, Elizabeth pursued this nobleman, she transferred after his death to his wife, who was not allowed, during the queen's life, to enter London, except for medical advice; and if the queen came to town during such a visit, Lady Arundel received orders to quit London immediately.



The rage of persecution which now distinguished the queen, continued the greater part of her life; old age alone appearing to abate her virulence as it dimmed her faculties and subdued her spirits. Sixty-one Roman Catholic clergymen, forty-seven laymen, and two ladies suffered death for their religion. The fines for recusancy were levied with the utmost rigour, £20 per lunar month being the legal sum, so that many gentlemen were fleeced of their entire income. Besides this, they were liable to a year's imprisonment and a fine of 100 marks every time they heard mass. The search for concealed priests was carried on with great avidity, because it gave occasion for plunder, and on conviction of such concealment, forfeiture of the whole of their property, followed with ample gleaning to the informers. The poorer recusants were, for some time, imprisoned; but the prisons becoming full, officers were sent through the country visiting all villages and remote places, and extorting what they could.

As Elizabeth grew in years she more and more resembled her father, and persecuted the Puritans as