Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/252

232 poison, and there was a thought of indicting the Duke of Northumberland for his murder: hut it was relinquished on further inquiry; the poison, if the physicians were right, must have been administered by negligence or accident. The corpse was then buried with the forms of the Church of covered in the same hall. The keeper, whose name was 'Alisander,' with his wife, came and sat down, and half a dozen prisoners that were there for felony,' Underhill 'being the first that for religion was sent unto that prison.' One of the felons had served with him in France. 'After supper,' the story continues, 'this good fellow, whose name was Bristow, procured me to have a bed in his chamber, who could play well upon a rebeck. He was a tall fellow, and after one of Queen Mary's guard; yet a Protestant, which he kept secret, for else, he said, he should not have found such favour as he did at the keeper's hands and his wife's, for to such as loved the gospel they were very cruel. Well, said Underhill, I have sent for my Bible, and, by God's grace, therein shall be my daily exercise; I will not hide it from them. Sir, said he, I am poor; but they will bear with you, for they see your estate is to pay well; and I will shew you the nature and manner of them; for I have been here a good while. They both do love music very well. Wherefore you with your lute, and I to play with you on my rebeck, will please them greatly. He loveth to be merry, and to drink wine, and she also. If you will bestow upon them, every dinner and supper, a quart of wine and some music, you shall be their white son, and have all the favour they can shew you.'The honour of being 'white son' to the governor and governess of Newgate was worth aspiring after. Underhill duly provided the desired entertainments. The governor gave him the best room in the prison, with all other admissible indulgences.'At last,' however, 'the evil savours, great unquietness, with over many drafts of air,' threw the poor gentleman into a burning ague. He shifted 'his lodgings,' but to no purpose; the 'evil savours' followed him. The keeper offered him his own parlour, where he escaped from the noise of the prison; but it was near the kitchen, and the smell of the meat was disagreeable. Finally, the wife put him away in her store-closet, amidst her best plate, crockery, and clothes, and there he continued to survive till the middle of September, when he was released on bail through the interference of the Earl of Bedford.—Underhill's Narrative: Harleian MSS. 425.