innocent as unborn babes. It was remarked how strangely their names
went with the name of the murdered man and of the place he was found in.

For a while after that, matters were more quiet. A man named Samuel
Atkins was tried presently, but was acquitted; and then a Nathaniel
Reading was tried for suppressing evidence, and was punished for it. But
our minds, rather, were fixed upon the approaching trial of the "Five
Jesuits" as they were called, who still awaited it in prison--Whitbread,
Fenwick, Harcourt, Gavan and Turner--all priests. But I had not a great
deal of hope for these, when I thought of what had happened to the rest;
and, indeed, at the end of May, Mr. Pickering himself was executed. At
the beginning of May too, we heard of the bloody murder of Dr. Sharpe,
the Protestant Archbishop in Scotland, by the old Covenanters, driven
mad by the persecution this man had put them to; but this did not
greatly affect our fortunes either way. One of the most bitter thoughts
of all was that a secular priest named Serjeant, who, with another named
Morris, was of Gallican views, had given evidence in public court
against the Jesuits' casuistry.

Meanwhile, in other matters, we were quiet enough. Still I hesitated in
pushing my suit with my Cousin Dolly, until I could see whether she was
being forced to it or not. But my Cousin Tom had more wits than I had
thought; for he said no more to me on the point, nor I to him; and I
think I should have spoken to her that summer, had not an interruption
come to my plans that set all aside for the present. During those months
of spring and early summer we had no religious consolation at all; for
we were too near London, and at the same time too solitary for any
priest to come to us.

The interruption came in this manner.