For to repent (though fauour he

Deserued had but small

At those, which now in his distresse,
Did shew him moste of all.)

But scoft and mocked those, as yet
Whiche gladly would him teache.
But, cheefly in his death, such men
As gospel soundly preache.

And therfore sith, in life of his,
No vertue was to praise :
In welth, ne wo, no spark of grace,
Whiche liu'd and spent his days,

So like a Cyclops in his den,
Deseruing no good fame:

Sith God hath cut of suche a * drone,
Can we but praise his name?

And eke beseeche th' almightie Ioue,
The number to fulfil :

In cutting of the rest with speed,
That bear the beast good will.

Who sure may shame at his vile race,
But more at his vile end:
And sore lament his fearful state,
Whiche now did not amend.

Though all his life he had been bent,
Yet now to stand so stout:
Denying Christe, at his last breath,
Is fearful, out of dout.

This may suffize, as God hath lent
Me grace to rule my pen:

In blasing foorth the deeds and fame,
(Before all Christian men)

Of Romaines greasy God, whose life
And death (so woorthy shame)
I haue display'd, and therfore now,
Such shal be muche to blame,

Which carp at truthe, and stomack this
That eury man can tel

Throughout this land, and others to,

Ere this whiche knew it wel.

• A drone breedeth among bees, muche like a bee; and alwayes iiues in the hiue, neuer coming aut to gather hony, but stil deuoureth that whiche the bee dooth gather, and, at last, the bee and all.

God saue our Queen Elizabeth,

And bring her foes to il:

And root out those with speed from vs
Whiche bear the Pope good wil. Amen.

T. KNELL. Iu.

A

COPIE OF A LETTER

Lately sent by a Gentleman*, Student in the Lawes of the Realme, to a Frende of his,

CONCERNYNG D. STORIE.

Black Letter, Octavo, containing twenty-two Pages.

ACCORDING to your request, you shal hereby vnderstand what you may truely saye and auowe vpon such questions as it seemeth you haue harde, of the date execution of D. Storie, who suffred at Tiburne the first of Iune last.

It is notorious howe euyll and vnloyally he behaued hym selfe here in Englande before he departed the realme; and howe earnest a persecu tor afterward he was of all the good subjectes of Englande, hauyng cause to be in the Lowe-countreys, both before the arrest made of late by the Duke of Alua, as sence that tyme, a multitude of honest marchaunts knowe it, both Englyshe and others, and a great number haue felt it, by imprisonment, procured by hym, and by seasyng and confiscatyng of their goodes; so as there is no doubt to be made, but that he was, to his power, as earnest an enemie to the state of Englande, his naturall countrey, and the Queenes Maiesties good subiectes, as any man borne in this realme coulde be. Neuerthelesse, because, at the place of his execution before his death, he vsed long and many speeches, to moue some of simple understandyng, or that dyd not knowe his rancor and malice agaynst the Queenes Maiestie, and the state of this realme; and for that it was not then conucnient, nor at least coulde be imagined aforehande, that he woulde haue vsed suche speeches at that tyme, and so he was suffred to speake altogether without contradiction, whereby the trueth, percase, may be made to you obscure; you shall vnderstande of what detestable crymes he was gyltie, and therewith shoulde haue ben particulerly charged at tyme of his arraignement in the Kyngs-benche, but that he craftyly and traytorously, knowying by his examination wherewith he was to be

See the 4th Article in the Catalogue of Pamphlets.

charged, and howe much he hym selfe had confessed in the Towre; and, beyng written in certayne leaues of paper, had subscribed with his owne hande wrytyng; refused to haue any tryall made therof, alleaging that he ought not to answere, nor wouldé answere, because he was subject to the Kyng of Spayne, and not subiect to the Queenes Maiestie, and the Crowne of Englande: and so, although he was charitably, earnestly, and reasonably required at his arraignment, to answere to the matters wherewith he was charged by indytement, as a borne subiect of this realme; yet he woulde not, but traytorously refused to answere thereto, in such sort, as if he had been indyted of felonie, as he was of hygh-treason, he should, for his not answeryng, haue suffred the payne of pressyng to death, which maner of judgement is not vsed in cases of treason by the lawes of the realme, bnt was adjudged gyltie of the treasons conteyned in the indytement, as of necessitic and iustice he ought to be, for other iudgement coulde not be geuen: and so, by iustice of lawe, he was iudged to the death which he suffred. But, for that it may serue to the satisfaction of all men, to consyder howe farre he was gyltie of the treasons conteyned in his indytement, hereafter foloweth a true, iuste, and playne report of the matters, both wherof he was accused and examined, and which also he did confesse in the Towre.

He was to be charged, that he dyd traytorously conspire agaynst the Queenes Maiestie, with one Prestall, an Englyshe man, who was a fugityue, and principall deuisor of the first treason intended by the young Pooles xi yeres past, and therof was indyted and outlawed: and afterwarde, of late tyme, he practised an other great treason with certayne persons, wherof one disclosed the same to the Duke of Norfolke, who also verye dutifullye reucaled the same to the Queenes Maiestie, wherevpon the sayde Prestall, beyng sought for to be apprehended, fledde into Scotlande, where also he ioyned hymselfe with the Englyshe rebelles, and there attempted sundry treasons against her Maiestie, and from thence he fledde into Flaunders. With this maner of traytor had this D. Storie a continuall intelligence to further his treasons, insomuche as he sayde, not long before he came into Englande, to one that for Duetics sake disclosed it, and is redy to proue it, that Prestall shoulde, or it were long, be the leader of xl thousand men into Englande, agaynst that woman which toke vpon her to be Queene; and sayde the same Storie, I woulde be God she were in the bottome of the sea; with other vile and reprochfull wordes, not meete to be reported. With which traytorous speeches he should haue ben charged, yf he woulde haue abyden Tryall accordyng to the lawes of the realme.

The sayde Storie sayde also, in the presence of two persons of Eng lish byrth, who were redy to haue charged hym therewith, yf he woulde hauc stande to tryall, that he had written letters to Bruxels, that, yf the matters conteyned therein shoulde be reuealed, where he shoulde be charged there with, he shoulde be hanged, drawen, and quartered. And immediately after this speeche he went to Bruxels with Prestall, where he and Prestall were rewarded with money; and there Prestall declared to certayne persons, redy also to haue auowed

the same, that he had opened his whole purposes to D. Story, whereto D. Story was sworne to kepe the same secrete. But, of the thynges intended by Prestall and Story at that tyme, neyther of them woulde be then knowen; but yet Prestall affirmed, that he had an art to poyson any body a farre of, beyng not present with them, and that none coulde do it but he. And, to shew some taste of their mischiefes, a gentleman belongyng to Courteuile, a secretarie to the Duke of Alua, tolde an Englyshe man, redye also to auowe the same, that D. Story and Prestall were about such matters, and such vyle treason, as the saide partie sayde, that no man coulde deuise worse, and that D. Story was such a wicked man, as could not be found the like, and that he thought veryly they were about murdring of some great persons in Englande.

The sayde Story also receaued certayne letters from Prestall out of Scotland, being written in Scottyshe, whiche are also to be seenc, and myght haue ben shewed at the arraignement, yf he woulde haue ben tryed: which letters Story translated into Latin, and caryed the same to Bruxels, by whiche it was required, that meanes should be made to the Duke of Alua, to sende into Scotland certayne horsmen, and a number of dagges, to make an entry and inuasion into Englande, with the Scottes; and by the same letter Prestall wrote, that, the thyng, whiche he tolde D. Story in secrete, woulde cost a thousande markes, and that yf the regent and the foolyshe boy, the young kyng, were dispatched and dead, the Scottyshe Queene were a marriage for the best man lyuyng. Al which wordes are conteyned in the letter, translated by D. Story.

The sayde Story beyng at Bruxels, and receauyng a letter from olde Norton, a very olde rebell, beyng arryued at Antwerpe, dyd sollicite certayne of the counsell about the Duke, for money for the reliefe of the same Norton, and his company; and wrote to hym to comfort hym by expresse wordes, that, where he and his company were before but worshipfull, nowe they were an honourable state, and had wonne double honor, and perpetuall fame, for their late enterprise in Englande, and that he woulde come shortly, to geue them their welcome to Antwerpe; and immediatlye he procured, that one D. Saunders, with certayne Englyshe fugityues harboured in Louain, went to Antwerpe to the rebelles, and there Saunders made to them a solemne long oration in prayse of their

actes.

Story also declared in Antwerpe, in presence of such as shoulde haue auowed it ar his arraignement, yf he woulde haue denyed it, that the rebellion shoulde be renewed in Englande, and that, at the same instant also, Irelande shoulde rebell, whereof he sayde he was well assured by aduertisement from an Iryshe bishop, that hadde scaped out of the Towre of London, and that, at the same instant also, the Scottes shoulde, with an ayde out of Fraunce, inuade Englande, and set vp the Scottyshe Queene.

The sayde Story also vsed commonly this maner of prayer after his meates, whereof there are diuers persons redy to witnes the same, that haue hearde hym, and lastly, euen in the hoy wherein he was before he came last into Englande, in the presence of diuers persons, that yf the Queenes Maiestie, whom he woulde neuer tearme, but by the

name of Dame Elizabeth, that tooke vppon her to be Queene, woulde not speedyly turn to Queene Maries religion, he prayed that she myght be ouercome with sworde and fyre, and all that woulde take her part.

And though he myght haue ben charged with sundry other traytorous and haynous conspiracies in the Lowe Countreys, and with aydyng of the rebelles there, whereof out of the saide Lowe Countreys aduertisement was geuen by sundry of good credite; yet of set purpose no more is aboue recited, but suche thynges only, as wherwith he shoulde haue ben charged openly by witnesses, at his arraignement, who, yf he woulde haue denyed the same, shoulde haue auowed the whole to his face, and in the hearyng of the jury, that shoulde haue tryed hym. And howe many of the thynges before recited are to be iudged true and probable, it is to see by these thynges folowyng, whiche are worde by worde extracted out of his owne confessions, subscribed with his owne hande, and vttered upon interrogatories, without any maner of torture, or offer of torture, although at the place of execution he vsed speeche to the contrary, very vntruly, as the worshipfull persons that examined hym can well testifie, which were,

Sir Thomas Wroth, Knight, Maister Wilbraham, then Recorder of London, and Maister Peter Osborne, the tresorers Remembrancer in the Exchequer, and so can also the Lieuetenaunt of the Towre, as touchyng any torture.

Extracted out of D. Stories Confessions.

ix. December. 1570.

JOHN STORY, the day and yere aboue written being examined, saith, that John Prestall dyd wryte a letter to the sayde John Story, of three sydes of a sheete of paper, as he remembreth, and directed to the sayde Story, which letter was inclosed in a letter, wrytten to one Hamelton, a Scot, that lay at Bruxels, for hym to peruse and seale the same, and then to delyuer it to the sayd Story. And the same letter the sayde Hamelton read, and sealed it vp, and told this examinat the effect therof, and he bad hym open it, and reade it; and so the sayde Hamelton dyd, vntyll he came to a word, Boy or Chylde,' meanyng the King of Scottes, to be made away, as the said Story tooke it.

xii. December. 1570.

Item, He sayth, that Hamelton tolde hym, that Prestall had written, that the matter which Prestall had tolde Story, and the sayd Hamelton, that an Englyshe man nowe in Irelande coulde do, woulde not be done without a great summe of money, whiche matter was to make the Kyng of Scottes away; for Prestall had told this examinat and Hamelton, that the Scottes woulde hardlye be reduced to obe

VOL. I.

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