ough accused of
nothing. That when, either his enemies being ashamed to pursue these
proceedings further, or her majesty being prevailed upon by his friends
to put an end to them, he had at length recovered his liberty, he had
been led to meditate on the fates of his three unfortunate ancestors,
all circumvented by their enemies, and two of them (the earl of Surry
his grandfather and the duke of Norfolk his father) brought for slight
causes to an untimely end. And having weighed their cases with what had
just befallen himself, he concluded that it might well be his lot to
succeed them in fortune as in place. His foes were strong to overthrow,
he weak to defend himself, since innocence, he had found, was no
protection; her majesty being "easily drawn to an ill opinion of" his
"ancestry;" and moreover, he had been "charged by the council to be of
the religion which was accounted odious and dangerous to her estate."
"Lastly," he adds, "but principally, I weighed in what miserable
doubtful case my soul had remained if my life had been taken, as it was
not unlikely, in my former troubles. For I protest, the greatest burden
that rested on my conscience at that time was, because I had not lived
according to the prescript rule of that which I undoubtedly believed."
&c.

The earl had actually embarked at a small port in Sussex, when, his
project having been betrayed to the government by the mercenary villany
of the master of the vessel and of one of his own servants, orders were
issued for his detention, and he was brought back in custody and
committed to the Tower. The letter just quoted was then produced against
him; it was declared to reflect on the justice of the country; and for
the double offence of having written it and of attempting to quit the
kingdom without license, he underwent a long imprisonment, and was
arbitrarily sentenced to a fine of one thousand pounds, which he proved
his inability to pay. The barbarous tyranny which held his body in
thraldom, served at the same time to rivet more strongly upon his mind
the fetters of that stern superstition which had gained dominion over
him. The more he endured for his religion, the more awful and important
did it appear in his eyes; while in proportion to the severity and
tediousness of his sufferings from without, the scenery within became
continually more cheerless and terrific; and learning to dread in a
future world the prolonged operation of that principle of cruelty