The subscribers bound themselves to pursue to the death all manner of
persons who should attempt or consent to anything to the harm of her
Majesty's person; never to allow or submit to any pretended successor by
whom or for whom such detestable act should be attempted or committed;
but to pursue such persons to death and act the utmost revenge upon
them.

The bond in its first form was a visible creation of despair. It implied
a condition of things in which order would have ceased to exist. The
lawyers, who, it is curious to observe, were generally in Mary Stuart's
interest, vehemently objected; yet so passionate was public feeling
that it was signed throughout the kingdom, and Parliament was called to
pass an Act which would secure the same object. Mary Stuart, at any
rate, was not to benefit by the crimes either of herself or her
admirers. It was provided that if the realm was invaded, or a rebellion
instigated by or for any one pretending a title to the crown after the
Queen's death, such pretender should be disqualified for ever. In the
event of the Queen's assassination the government was to devolve on a
Committee of Peers and Privy Councillors, who were to examine the
particulars of the murder and execute the perpetrators and their
accomplices; while, with a significant allusion, all Jesuits and
seminary priests were required to leave the country instantly, under
pain of death.

The House of Commons was heaving with emotion when the Act was sent up
to the Peers. To give expression to their burning feelings Sir
Christopher Hatton proposed that before they separated they should join
him in a prayer for the Queen's preservation. The 400 members all rose,
and knelt on the floor of the House, repeating Hatton's words after him,
sentence by sentence.

Jesuits and seminary priests! Attempts have been made to justify the
conspiracies against Elizabeth from what is called the persecution of
the innocent enthusiasts who came from Rheims to preach the Catholic
faith to the English people. Popular writers and speakers dwell on the
executions of Campian and his friends as worse than the Smithfield
burnings, and amidst general admiration and approval these martyred
saints have been lately canonised. Their mission, it is said, was purely
religious. Was it so? The chief article in the religion which they came
to teach was the duty of obedience to the Pope, who had excommunicated
the Queen, had absolved her subjects from the