t under
government, but he refused all their offers, saying that he would rather
die a hundred deaths than abandon the faith of the pure gospel. The
next day he was led to the place of execution. We were compelled to be
present. The faggots were piled round him. Some of the people, moved
with pity, cried out that he should be strangled first, and the
executioner himself seemed unwilling to light the pile; when one of the
priests, seizing the torch, set fire to the faggots, which quickly
blazed up, and our good minister's soul went to that happy home prepared
for him. The priests, having caught sight of me, insisted that I should
be thrown into prison to await their pleasure, which I knew very well
would be ere long to burn me at the stake.

"Some of our countrymen, I am sorry to say, recanted, and were set free,
but others held fast. I determined, however, if I could, to make my
escape, should I have strength enough to do so; for we were so poorly
fed that I expected, before long, to be starved. All the prisoners had
hitherto been confined in a common cell; but after I was condemned, I
was placed in one by myself. It was in a new part of the prison, which
I had actually been employed in building. The whole structure was of
wood, though, at the same time, very strong. I knew that I could not
make my way through the walls, nor underground, as the stakes were
driven down deep, and no human strength could force them up; but I
recollected the way I had put on the roof; and, though the slabs were
heavy, I was certain that I could force one of them up sufficiently to
allow me to get through. I had not been long shut up, when a priest
came, and endeavoured to make me recant, picturing the horrible tortures
I should suffer in this world, and in the next, if I refused. I asked
him whence he got his authority. He answered from the Church. I
replied that the Bible was before the Church; and that the Bible says,
`Whosoever believeth on Me shall not perish, but have everlasting life;'
and that, though he might burn my body, Christ could save my soul. He
replied that the Bible must not be interpreted by laymen, and that the
Church had alone the power to explain it. I observed that the Church of
Christ had ever explained it exactly as I did, and to that Church I
belonged; that the system which he called `The Church,' was built up at
Rome by pagan priests, and had ever since been employed in adding
falsehood to falsehood