no efforts of his own could help him now,
quieted and strengthened him for the ordeal he foresaw. At this time,
too, he used to spend two or three hours a day in meditation, and found
the greatest benefit in following the tranquil method of prayer
prescribed by Louis de Blois, with whose writings he had made
acquaintance at Douai. Each morning, too, he said a "dry mass," and
during the whole of his imprisonment at the Clink managed to make his
confession at least once a week, and besides his communion at mass on
Sundays, communicated occasionally from the Reserved Sacrament, which he
was able to keep in a neighbouring cell, unknown to his gaoler.

And so the days went by, as orderly as in a Religious House; he rose at a
fixed hour, observed the greatest exactness in his devotions, and did his
utmost to prevent any visitors being admitted to see him, or any from
another cell coming into his own, until he had finished his first
meditation and said his office. And there began to fall upon him a kind
of mellow peace that rose at times of communion and prayer to a point so
ravishing, that he began to understand that it would not be a light cross
for which such preparatory graces were necessary.

* * * *

Towards the middle of September he received intelligence that evidence
had been gathering against him, and that one or two were come from
Lancashire under guard; and that he would be brought before the
Commissioners again immediately.

Within two days this came about. He was sent for across the water to the
Tower, and after waiting an hour or two with his gaoler downstairs in the
basement of the White Tower, was taken up into the great Hall where the
Council sat. There was a table at the farther end where they were
sitting, and as Anthony looked round he saw through openings all round in
the inner wall the little passage where the sentries walked, and heard
their footfalls.

The preliminaries of identification and the like had been disposed of at
previous examinations before Mr. Young--a name full of sinister
suggestiveness to the Catholics; and so, after he had been given a seat
at a little distance from the table behind which the Commissioners sat,
he was questioned minutely as to his journey in the North of England.

"What were you there for, Mr. Norris?" inquired the Secretary of the
Council.

"I went to see friends, and to do my business."

"Then that resolves itsel