on listened to, a good deal more than he was aware. Mr.
Stewart, however, as he still called himself, was in a much harder case.
The saddle-bags had been opened on his arrival, and incriminating
documents found. Besides the "popish trinkets" they were found to contain
a number of "seditious pamphlets," printed abroad for distribution in
England; for at this time the College at Douai, under its founder Dr.
William Allen, late Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, was active in
the production of literature; these were chiefly commentaries on the
Bull; as well as exhortations to the Catholics to stand firm and to
persevere in recusancy, and to the schismatic Catholics, as they were
called, to give over attending the services in the parish churches. There
were letters also from Dr. Storey himself, whom the authorities already
had in person under lock and key at the Tower. These were quite
sufficient to make Mr. Stewart a prize; and he also was very shortly
afterwards removed to the Tower.

Sir Nicholas wrote a letter at least once a week to his wife; but writing
was something of a labour to him; it was exceedingly doubtful to his mind
whether his letters were not opened and read before being handed to the
courier, and as his seal was taken from him his wife could not tell
either. However they seemed to arrive regularly; plainly therefore the
authorities were either satisfied with their contents or else did not
think them worth opening or suppressing. He was quite peremptory that his
wife should not come up to London; it would only increase his distress,
he said; and he liked to think of her at Maxwell Hall; there were other
reasons too that he was prudent enough not to commit to paper, and which
she was prudent enough to guess at, the principal of which was, of
course, that she ought to be there for the entertaining and helping of
other agents or priests who might be in need of shelter.

The old man got into good spirits again very soon. It pleased him to
think that God had honoured him by imprisonment; and he said as much once
or twice in his letters to his wife. He was also pleased with a sense of
the part he was playing in the _role_ of a conspirator; and he underlined
and put signs and exclamation marks all over his letters of which he
thought his wife would understand the significance, but no one else;
whereas in reality the old lady was sorely puzzled by them, and the
authorities who opened the letters generally read