English literature -- History and criticism; Literature -- Anecdotes; Litterateurs
One of these _generosi adolescentuli_, youths of generous blood, was
CHIDIOCK TITCHBOURNE, of Southampton, the more intimate friend of
Babington. He had refused to connect himself with the assassination of
Elizabeth, but his reluctant consent was inferred from his silence. His
address to the populace breathes all the carelessness of life, in one
who knew all its value. Proud of his ancient descent from a family which
had existed before the Conquest till now without a stain, he paints the
thoughtless happiness of his days with his beloved friend, when any
object rather than matters of state engaged their pursuits; the hours of
misery were only first known the day he entered into the conspiracy. How
feelingly he passes into the domestic scene, amidst his wife, his child,
and his sisters! and even his servants! Well might he cry, more in
tenderness than in reproach, "Friendship hath brought me to this!"
"Countrymen, and my dear friends, you expect I should speak
something; I am a bad orator, and my text is worse: It were in
vain to enter into the discourse of the whole matter for which
I am brought hither, for that it hath been revealed heretofore;
let me be a warning to all young gentlemen, especially
_generosis adolescentulis_. I had a friend, a dear friend, of
whom I made no small account, _whose friendship hath brought me
to this_; he told me the whole matter, I cannot deny, as they
had laid it down to be done; but I always thought it impious,
and denied to be a dealer in it; but the regard of my friend
caused me to be a man in whom the old proverb was verified; I
was silent, and so consented. Before this thing chanced, we
lived together in most nourishing estate: Of whom went report
in the _Strand_, _Fleet-street_, and elsewhere about _London_,
but of _Babington and Titchbourne_? No threshold was of force
to brave our entry. Thus we lived, and wanted nothing we could
wish for; and God knows what less in my head than _matters of
state_. Now give me leave to declare the miseries I sustained
after I was acquainted with the action, wherein I may justly
compare my estate to that of Adam's, who could not abstain _one
thing forbidden_, to enjoy all other things the world could
afford; the terror of conscience awaited me. After I considered
the dangers whereinto I was fallen, I went to Sir John Peters
in Essex, and appointed my horses should meet me at London,
intending to go down into the country. I came to London, and
then heard that all was bewrayed; whereupon, like Adam, we fled
into the woods to hide ourselves. My dear countrymen, my
sorrows may be your joy, yet mix your smiles with tears, and
pity my case; _I am descended from a house, from two hundred
years before the Conquest, never stained till this my
misfortune. I have a wife and one child; my wife Agnes, my dear
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