young Mr. Audrey (for that was his real name--not Alban; that was a
Popish _alias_ such as they all used)--Mr. Audrey had not been on the
rack for the whole of every day. But he had been in the rack-house eight
or nine hours on the first day, four the second, and six or seven the
third. And he had not answered one single question differently from the
manner in which he had answered it before ever he had been on the rack
at all. (There was a dim sense of pride with regard to this, in many
Derbyshire minds. A Derbyshire man, it appeared, was more than a match
for even a Londoner and a sworn servant of her Grace.) It was said that
Mr. Audrey would have to be helped up the ladder, even though he had not
been racked for a whole week since his sentence.

Next, the trial itself had been full of interest. A Papist priest was,
of course, fair game. (Why, the Spanish Armada itself had been full of
them, it was said, all come to subdue England.... Well, they had had
their bellyful of salt water and English iron by now.) But this Papisher
had hit back and given sport. He had flatly refused to be caught, though
the questions were swift and subtle enough to catch any clerk. Certainly
he had not denied that he was a priest; but he had said that that was
what the Crown must prove: he was not there as a witness, he had said,
but as a prisoner; he had even entreated them to respect their own
legal dignities! But there had been a number of things against him, and
even if none of these had been proved, still, the mere sum of them was
enough; there could be no smoke without fire, said the proverb-quoters.
It was alleged that he had been privy to the plot against the Queen (the
plot of young Mr. Babington, who had sold his house down there a week or
two only before his arrest); he had denied this, but he had allowed that
he had spoken with her Grace immediately after the plot; and this was a
highly suspicious circumstance: if he allowed so much as this, the rest
might be safely presumed. Again, it was said that he had had part in
attempts to free the Queen of the Scots, even from Fotheringay itself;
and had been in the castle court, with a number of armed servants, at
the very time of her execution. Again, if he allowed that he had been
present, even though he denied the armed servants, the rest might be
presumed. Finally, since he were a priest, and had seen her Grace at a
time when there was no chaplain allowed to her, it was certain that he