Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/107

 1581.] THE JESUIT INVASION. 9t but still without success. The brave Mrs Yates showed no anxiety, begged the constables to remain for the night, entertained them hospitably, and dosed them heavily with ale. Sound slumber followed ; Campian and his two companions were brought out of their hiding- place, and at that moment might have easily escaped, but enthusiasm and prudence were ill companions. A ' parting of friends ' was necessary, and ' last words,' and tears and sobs, at Mrs Yates's bedside. The murmur of voices was heard below-stairs, aiid dis- turbed the sleepers in the hall. The three priests were again hurried into the wall, and at day- J. July 1 7. break the search was renewed. Again it was unsuccessful. The magistrate, an xmwilling in- strument throughout, was about to depart with a sar- castic remark to Eliot on the accuracy of his inform- ation ; they were descending the staircase for the last time, when Eliot, striking the wall, heard something unusual in the sound. A servant of the house who was at his side became agitated. Eliot called for a mattock, dashed in the plaster, and found the men that he was in search of lying side by side upon a narrow bed. They had confessed their sins to each other. They had said their Fiat voluntas tua. Three times they had invoked St John as Campian's patron saint. But St John had left them to their fate. Campian was taken out with- out violence, and was carried first to Aldermaston, the house of Humfrey Forster, the Sheriff of Berkshire. Forster, who, like most English gentlemen, was more than half a Catholic, received him rather as a guest than