‘You see yonder hill before us,’ he said to Perlebeane; ‘it is Brixton Causeway, two miles from London. There are great woods on both sides. When we come to the top, we will permit Fryth to escape to the woods on the left hand, whence he may easily get into Kent, where he was born, and where he has many friends. We will linger an hour or two on the road after his flight, to give him time to reach a place of safety, and when night approaches, we will go to Streatham, which is a mile and a half off, and make an outcry in the town that our prisoner has escaped into the woods on the right hand towards Wandsworth; that we followed him for more than a mile, and at length lost him because we were not many enough. At the same time we will take with us as many people as we can to search for him in that direction; if necessary we will be all night about it; and before we can send the news of what has happened to Croydon, Fryth will be in safety, and the bishops will be disappointed.’ The gentleman, we see, was not very scrupulous about the means of rescuing a victim from the Roman priests. Perlebeane thought as he did. ‘Your plan pleases me,’ he answered; ‘now go and tell the prisoner, for we are already at the foot of the hill.’ The delighted gentleman hurried forward. ‘Master Fryth,’ he said, ‘let us talk together a little. I cannot hide from you that the task I have undertaken, to bring you to Croydon, as a sheep to the slaughter, grieves me exceedingly, and there is no danger I would not brave to deliver you out of the lion’s mouth. Yonder good fellow and I have devised a plan whereby you may escape. Listen to me. The gentleman having described his plan, Fryth smiled amiably, and said: ‘This, then, is the result of your long consultation together. You have wasted your time. If you were both to leave me here and go to Croydon, declaring to the bishops you had lost me, I should follow after as fast as I could, and bring them news that I had found and brought Fryth again.’ The gentleman had not expected such an answer. A prisoner refuse his liberty! ‘You are mad,’ he said: ‘do you think your reasoning will convert the bishops? At Milton Shone you tried to escape beyond the sea, and now you refuse to save yourself!’—‘The two cases are different,’ answered Fryth; ‘then I was at liberty, and, according to the advice of St. Paul, I would fain have enjoyed my liberty for the continuance of my studies. But now the higher power, as it were by Almighty God’s permission, has seized me, and my conscience binds me to defend the doctrine for which I am persecuted, if I would not incur our Lord’s condemnation. If I should now run away, I should run from my God; if I should fly, I should fly from the testimony I am bound to bear to his Holy Word, and I should deserve a thousand hells. I most heartily thank you both for your good will towards me; but I beseech you to bring me where I was appointed to be brought, for else I will go thither all alone.’[322]