appy home prepared
for him. The priests, having caught sight of me, insisted that I should
be thrown into prison to await their pleasure, which I knew very well
would be ere long to burn me at the stake.

"Some of our countrymen, I am sorry to say, recanted, and were set free,
but others held fast. I determined, however, if I could, to make my
escape, should I have strength enough to do so; for we were so poorly
fed that I expected, before long, to be starved. All the prisoners had
hitherto been confined in a common cell; but after I was condemned, I
was placed in one by myself. It was in a new part of the prison, which
I had actually been employed in building. The whole structure was of
wood, though, at the same time, very strong. I knew that I could not
make my way through the walls, nor underground, as the stakes were
driven down deep, and no human strength could force them up; but I
recollected the way I had put on the roof; and, though the slabs were
heavy, I was certain that I could force one of them up sufficiently to
allow me to get through. I had not been long shut up, when a priest
came, and endeavoured to make me recant, picturing the horrible tortures
I should suffer in this world, and in the next, if I refused. I asked
him whence he got his authority. He answered from the Church. I
replied that the Bible was before the Church; and that the Bible says,
`Whosoever believeth on Me shall not perish, but have everlasting life;'
and that, though he might burn my body, Christ could save my soul. He
replied that the Bible must not be interpreted by laymen, and that the
Church had alone the power to explain it. I observed that the Church of
Christ had ever explained it exactly as I did, and to that Church I
belonged; that the system which he called `The Church,' was built up at
Rome by pagan priests, and had ever since been employed in adding
falsehood to falsehood, for the sake of imposing on the minds of the
people, and compelling them to do their will; and that, if he wished to
serve Christ, he must leave his false church, as thousands of my
countrymen had done, and tens of thousands in Germany and England, or
that he himself would perish eternally. Without saying another word, he
left the cell, and I felt pretty sure would not come back again.

"I had a sheath knife, which I had managed to conceal inside my
trousers, and immediately set to work, and wrenched up a stool fixed
against the wall. Ther