Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/90

 74 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. traitor to his friends, and he was put on the rack that the report of his endurance might gain him credit and confidence with his order. ' There is nothing,' said this wretch, in a letter to Walsingham, 'that can please Doctor Allen better than to hear of his scholars' stout- ness in suffering for the Catholic faith. It is a wonder to see how he will rejoice at hearing thereof, which thing niaketh me to think that whereas I who was before this so dear to him that he made some account of me, and was not willing that I should depart when I did, if he shall now hear of my stoutness, that it has been such as to abide a whole year's close imprisonment, and that in the Tower, the only name whereof is terrible abroad, yea, and much more, to have been at the rack although I endured nothing thereon, but that is un- known to him to have been indicted, arraigned, and condemned for the same, as both he and his fellows I know are fully persuaded, and now stand at her Ma- jesty's pleasure for my life without any speeches as I suppose yet openly known that I am so minded as I have professed to your honour to reform myself accord- ing to her Majesty's good and virtuous proceedings if I were now with him in this case I should be so much made of as I cantfot express it in words, and I think verily he would now make me privy to many things which hitherto, mistrusting my constancy, he has kept secret from me, imparting them to very few of the chief seniors of the house.' 1 ter of a Priest from the Tower, July, iSi : MSS. Domestic, 1 John Harte to Walsingham, December i, 1581 ; MSS. IbicJ.