books, vestments, rosaries, pictures, and other pious objects,
had all fallen into the hands of the pursuivants. Worse still,
Father Alexander Briant, afterwards a martyr, and one of the
brightest and most lovable of the missionaries, was seized next
door, and hurried off first to the Counter, then to the Tower,
where he was repeatedly and most cruelly racked to make him say
where Persons might be found.

Information about his torture was brought to the Jesuits at
Stonor, and one can easily see how grave and disturbing such
bad news must have been. "For almost the whole of one night,"
says Persons, "Campion and I sat up talking of what we had
better do, if we should fall into their hands. A fate which
befell him soon after."

The Registers of the Privy Council inform us that their Lordships
gave orders to have Jenks sent up to London on the 28th of April.
This settles approximately the date of the beginning of the
printing at Stonor, and the book was not finished till nearly the
end of June. So the work lasted about nine weeks, a fairly long
period when we consider the smallness of the Latin book, here
reproduced. It will, however, be shown from intrinsic evidence,
that the stock of type was very small. The printers had to set up
a few pages at a time, to correct them at once, and to print off,
before they could go any further. Then they distributed the type
and began again. When all was finished they rapidly stabbed and
bound their sheets. Considering the fewness of the workmen[8] and
the unforeseen delays which so often occur during printing, the
time taken over the production does not seem extraordinary.