Yet
I was offered my life, if I would but conform and go to church; so you
see very well--"
A storm of confused voices interrupted him. He could distinguish no
sentence, so he waited till they ceased again.
"So you see very well," he cried, "for what it is that I die. It is for
the Catholic faith--"
"Beat the drums! beat the drums!" cried a voice. There began a drumming;
but a howl like a beast's surged up from the whole crowd. When it died
again the drum was silent. He glanced down at my lord Shrewsbury and saw
him whispering with an officer. Then he continued:
"It is for the Catholic faith, then, that I die--that which was once the
faith of all England--and which, I pray, may be one day its faith again.
In that have I lived, and in that will I die. And I pray God, further,
that all who hear me to-day may have grace to take it as I do--as the
true Christian Religion (and none other)--revealed by our Saviour
Christ."
The crowd was wholly quiet again now. My lord had finished his
whispering, and was looking up. But the priest had made his little
sermon, and thought that he had best pray aloud before his strength
failed him. His knees were already shaking violently under him, and the
sweat was pouring again from his face, not so much from the effort of
his speech as from the pain which that effort caused him. It seemed that
there was not one nerve in his body that was not in pain.
"I ask all Catholics, then, that hear me to join with me in prayer.
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