though he confessed that he had deserved death for having contaminated
himself with the new sects of religion, and for having infected many
others. For this he said that God had justly punished him. He prayed all
the world to keep clear of heresy, and his words would cause the recovery
and conversion of innumerable souls.[416] This is a good instance of
Chapuys's manner, and is a warning against an easy acceptance of his
various stories. It is false that Rochford declared himself innocent of
the adultery. It is false that he said that he deserved death for heresy.
He said nothing--not a word--about heresy. What he did say is correctly
given in Wriothesley's Chronicle, which confirms the report sent from
London to the Regent of the Netherlands.[417] The Spanish writer says that
his address was "_muy bien Catolica_," but it will be seen that he
carefully avoided a denial of the crime for which he suffered.

"Masters all, I am come hither not to preach a sermon, but to die, as the
law hath found me, and to the law I submit me, desiring you all, and
specially my masters of the Court, that you will trust in God specially,
and not in the vanities of the world; for if I had so done I think I had
been alive as ye be now. Also I desire you to help to the setting forth of
the true Word of God; I have been diligent to read it and set it forth
truly; but if I had been as diligent to observe it and done and lived
thereafter as I was to read it and set it forth, I had not come hereto.
Wherefore I beseech you all to be workers and live thereafter, and not to
read it and live not thereafter. As for my offences, it cannot avail you
to hear them that I die here for; but I beseech God that I may be an
example to you all, and that all you may beware by me, and heartily I
require you all to pray for me and to forgive me if I have offended you,
and I forgive you all, and God save the king."[418]

Of the other four, Smeton and Brereton admitted the justice of their
sentence, Brereton adding that, if he had to die a thousand deaths, he
deserved them all. Norris was almost silent. Weston lamented in general
terms the wickedness of his past life. From not one of the five came the
indignant repudiation of a false accusation which might have been surely
looked for from innocent men, and especially to be looked for when the
Queen's honour was compromised along with theirs.

A Protestant spectator of the execution, a follower of Sir H. Norris, and