Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/121

 1581.] THE JESUIT INVASION. 105 to hear a Protestant sermon, or would acknowledge in plain words that the Pope could not depose their Sovereign. Campian, as the eldest, was allowed the privilege of dying first. He ascended the cart and spoke a few words. Criers had proclaimed that the crime was not religion but treason. ' We are come here to die/ he said, ' but we are no traitors. I am a Catholic man and'' a priest. In that faith I have lived, and in that faith I mean to die. If you consider my religion treason, then I am guilty. Other treason I never committed any, as God is my judge.' ' Once more then/ said Sir Francis Knowles, ' How do you regard the Bull against the Queen ? ' ' The Bull has been mitigated/ Campian answered, 'so that Catholics may regard her as their Sovereign.' ' Do you renounce the Pope?' said Knowles. He replied, be admitted, justly, ' In your Catholicism all treason is contained.' That false-meaning mitigation, that sus- pension of the Bull, ad illud iempm, when the invader should have come, was but to arm the rattlesnake with deadlier venom. He began his prayers. Some one bade him pray in English. He smiled faintly, and said, ' I will pray to God in a language we both understand.' They told him to pray for the Queen. ' He had not offended the Q,ueen/ he said, ' and he would and did pray for her. ' For which Queen ? ' said Lord Howard ; ' for Eliza beth, the Queen ? ' ' Yes, for Elizabeth/ he answered,
 * I am a Catholic : ' and a bystander cried out, it must