the plague of heresy.

Roger Wrinstone and his crew were preparing to drag him down-stairs; but
the Justice, hobbling on his crutch, preceded them, leaning on the arm
of his priest. The party, on their entrance into the hall, found
Marsh's two kinsmen awaiting the event. They soon found that no favour
was intended.

"See to it, knaves," bellowed the knight, "that this fellow is delivered
up to my lord at Lathom by to-morrow, or your own carcases shall answer
for his."

Then did these poor men pray and beseech their kinsman that he would in
some wise conform to the religion of his superiors, or find some way of
escape from a cruel and ignominious death.

But Marsh, standing steadfast before them all, cried out with a loud
voice--

"Between me and them let God witness!" Looking up to heaven, he
exclaimed, as if with a sudden inspiration--"If my cause be just, let
this prayer of thine unworthy servant be heard!"

He stamped violently with his foot, and the impression of it, as the
general notion is, yet remains, to attest the purity of his cause and
the cruelty and injustice of his persecutors.

To this day may be seen the print of a man's foot in the stone, which by
many is believed to exist as a memorial of this good confession.

In shape it is much like that of a human foot, except its being rather
longer than common. In that part where the sole may have rested is a
small dent, as though a man had stamped vehemently on the soft earth,
and the weight of his body had borne principally on that place. The
impression is of a dark-brown or rather reddish hue, and is very
perceptible when damp or moistened by cleaning.

Marsh's subsequent history is soon told. From Lathom, where he was
examined before Lord Derby and his council, and found guilty of
heretical opinions, he was committed to Lancaster, and from thence to
the ecclesiastical court at Chester, where, after several examinations
before Dr Cotes, then bishop of this diocese, he was adjudged to the
stake, and burnt in pursuance of his sentence, at the place of public
execution near that city, on the 24th April 1555.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Baines' "Lancashire," p. 540.

[16] Whitaker's "Whalley," p. 424.

[17] "The common net at that time," says Sir Richard Baker, "for
catching of Protestants was the real presence; and this net was used to
catch the Lady Elizabeth. That princess showed great prudence in
concealing her sentiments of religion, in complying with