Bledlow, Bucks; Lady Babington, at Twyford, Bucks; Mr. Dormer, at
Wynge, and Mrs. Pollard.[12]

In spite of alarms, dangers, and interruptions, the work of
printing was concluded without mishap. The method of publication
was singular. Hartley took the bulk of the copies to Oxford,
where the chief academical display of the year, the Act, as it
was called, was taking place in St. Mary's, on several successive
days. Hartley, coming in at the end of the first day, waited for
every one to go out, then slipped his little books under the
papers left on the seats, and was gone. Next morning he entered
with the rest, and soon saw that his plan had been perfectly
successful. The public disputation began, but the attention of
the audience was elsewhere. There was whispering and comparing
notes, and passing about of little books, and as soon as the
seance was over, open discussion of Campion's "Reasons." Hartley
did not wait for more, but rode back to Stonor with the news that
the book had surely hit its mark.

At Oxford, as Father Persons says, many remembered and loved the
man, or at least knew of his gentle character, and of the career
he had abandoned to become a Catholic missionary. The book
recalled all this; and to those who were able to enter into its
spirit it preached with a strange penetrating force. By all the
lovers of classical Latin, and there were many such at that day,
it was read greedily. The Catholics and lovers of the old Faith
received it with enthusiasm, but a still more valid testimony to
its power was given by the Protestant Government, which gave
orders to its placemen that they should elaborate replies. These
replies drew forth answers from the Catholics, and the controversy