Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/88

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. that obstinacy, that lie would not tell truth though the Queea commanded him/ 1 Allen and his friends had now the confessors which they desired. Where eye could not reach, imagination penetrated, and the scenes in the Tower dungeons were painted in the gorgeous colours of the Catholic mar- tyrologies. The Government published no details of these dark transactions, and the Church had the field to itself. Only here and there is it possible to check with certainty the facile pen of the describe! 1 . The imprison- ment was made intentionally severe. The cells were underground, lighted by tunnels sloping upwards, and closely grated to prevent communication. The prison diet was bread, beer, salt fish, and water not the freshest. 2 The alarm had extended beyond the influence of its immediate cause. Old Abbot Feckenham and the sur- viving Marian bishops, who had lived hitherto in country houses, under loose restraint, were confined more strictly in the castles of Hull, Wisbeach, and Banbury. They suffered from the change of lodging, and some of great age died of it. Those whose estimate of probabilities will allow them, may believe if they please that debauched women were introduced into the rooms of Feckenham and Watson the Bishop of Lincoln, to tempt these aged and broken men to acts of impurity. 8 1 Thomas Norton to Walsingham March 27, 1582 : MSS. Domestic. 2 ' A.d vitae victusque sustenla- tionem aliud non babent prater panem et cerevisiam et modici salsi piscis sustentationem. Turn, quod valde inhumanum cst, aqua ad eorum necessitates supplendas illis dene- gatur, nisi ejusniodi qua; putrida sit veliut acceptare.' Letter from a Priest in the Tower, July, 1581 ; MSS. Domestic. 3 ' Erat non multis abbinc diebus meretrix quadam quorundara opera