PART THE SECOND. CHAPTER X.—(Continued.)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume v, Issue 232, 12 October 1877, Page 5

PART THE SECOND. CHAPTER X.— (Continued.)

Walter turned round towards the crowded court. " Good people, I pray you to hearken ; if I will go to church I shall be free,— how then can I die for treason ? See ye well, I die for priesthood alone, and for doing that which our Lord Himself commanded, saying, ' Go, teach all nations.' I returned into this realm for no other purpose than to administer the Sacraments of Christ, and to reclaim to Him such of Hia sheep ,as through ignorance or malice, had strayed from Him. And so it will continue ; for this religion, being divine, can never fail, and if you condemn one and put another to death, others will be ready to preach to you the faith of Christ crucified." " Silence the prisoner," said the judge in wrath. " Stand forth, Master de Lisle, for thou art an obstinate recusant, and listen to thy sentence." " Yes, listen to it, heir of the Do Lislcs : freeborn Englishman, listen to it : — ' " Thou art guilty of death, for the sole crime of exercising thy priestly office in this free land under this most just and gracious queen. "In three days from this thou shalt be carried on a hurdle to Tyborne, there hanged, and thy body disembowled and quartered ; and may God have mercy on thy soul 1 Amen." A shudder ran through the court. Many men, as well as -women, were in tears. " Courage, my friend," whispered the ambassadress, as she held the half- fainting Constance in her arms ; "my husband will intercede tor him ; one so noble shall not die thus ; he will be saved." Alone in all that multitude there was one unmoved. " Like a dog as they die at Tyborne, mother," said the boy baron a few years back, leaning on his mother's breast, and she shuddered. •Te Deum lavdamns : — te Dominion oonfitemvr, said the hunted priest in ]oyous accent ; and perchance one voice in the heavenly choirs, as they saw the things of eaith pass before their gaze, echoed more exultmgly,— " Ttt, devicto mart-is acvleo, apendsti credentibvs regna ccelonan". wnitem T i;T; The /?^ n * %i% i *£? **& is taken chiefl y from those of Edmund Cnmpian, William scot, and Robert Southwell, priests,