Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/33

 WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 19

had misled him ; saying he would presently have a device to be even with him. And he was as good as his word ; with a long ' tronke ' made a hole in the wall, near his playfellow's bed's-head, and in a fearful voice, spake thus, through the tronke. ' O mortal man, repent ! repent of thy horrible time, play, cousenage, and such lewdness, or else thou art damned, and canst not be saved ! ' Which at midnight, all alone, so amazed him, as drove him into a sweat for fear. Most penitent and heavy, the next day, in presence of the youths, he told, with trembling, what a fearful voice spake to him at midnight, vowing never to play again : and calling for Mr. Cecil, asked him for forgiveness on his knees ; and restored all his money, bedding and books. So two gamesters were both reclaimed with this merry device, and never played more."

The same authority tells us how Cecil attracted the notice of Henry VIII. Going down to Court one day to see his father, he met two priests, chaplains to Conn O'Neill, the Irish chieftain. With them he fell into a disputation (in Latin), " wherein he showed so great learning and wit, as he proved the poor priests to have neither ; who were so put down, as they had not a word to say," but retired discomfited. The King, hearing of this encounter, called for Cecil, and " after a long talk with him, much delighted with his answers, willed his father to find out a suit for him. Whereupon he became suitor for a reversion of the Gustos Brevium office in the common pleas, which the King willingly granted." Later writers state that the subject of the argument was the supremacy of the Pope ; but of this there is no evidence. This incident must belong to the year

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