e lame, the halt, and the blind; they took the weaver from his
loom, the carpenter from his workshop, the husbandman from his plough;
they laid hands on maidens and boys "who had never heard of any other
religion than that which they were called on to abjure;"[663] old men
tottering into the grave, and children whose lips could but just lisp
the articles of their creed; and of these they made their
burnt-offerings; with these they crowded their prisons, and when filth
and famine killed them, they flung them out to rot. How long England
would have endured the repetition of the horrid spectacles is hard to
say. The persecution lasted three years, and in that time something
less than 300 persons were burnt at the stake.[664] "By imprisonment,"
said Lord Burghley, "by torment, by famine, by fire, almost the number
of 400 were," in their various ways, "lamentably destroyed."

[Footnote 662: Underhill's _Narrative_.]

[Footnote 663: Burghley's _Execution of Justice_.]

[Footnote 664: The number is variously computed at
270, 280, and 290.]

Yet, as has been already said, interference was impossible except by
armed force. The country knew from the first that by the course of
nature the period of cruelty must be a brief one; it knew that a
successful rebellion is at best a calamity; and the bravest and wisest
men would not injure an illustrious cause by conduct less than worthy
of it, so long as endurance was possible. They had saved Elizabeth's
life and Elizabeth's rights, and Elizabeth, when her time came, would
deliver her subjects. The Catholics, therefore, were permitted to
continue their cruelties till the cup of iniquity was full; till they
had taught the educated laity of England to regard them with horror;
and till the Romanist superstition had died, amidst the execrations of
the people, of its own excess.

{p.321} INDEX

Abergavenny, Lord, 90, 92-6, 177.
d'Aguilar, 139.
Alexander, Mr., 296.
Alva, Duke of, 139-43, 165, 171, 210, 275, 276, 285, 292.
Annates, payment of, 239, 240.
Arnold, Sir Nicholas, 114, 260.
Arras, Bishop of, 38, 60, 61, 85, 119, 150, 155, 208.
Arundel, Lord, 13, 18, 21, 22, 28, 42, 43, 116, 171, 313, 314.
"Arundel's," 262.
Ashley, Mrs., 217.
Ashridge, Elizabeth at, 217.
Ashton, Christopher, 260-2.
Askew, Anne, 201, 202.
Astley Park, 101.
Aucher,