Great Britain -- History -- Mary I, 1553-1558; Mary I, Queen of England, 1516-1558
The sheriff led him through the streets, his friend
Joy "following afar off, as Peter followed Christ."
He wrote a few words to his wife at the door of
Newgate, asking her to send him "his nightgown, his
Bible, and his lute;" and then entered the prison,
his life in which he goes on to describe.
In the centre of Newgate was "a great open hall."
"As soon as it was supper time," the board was
covered in the same hall. The keeper, whose name
was "Alisander," with his wife, came and sat down,
and half a dozen prisoners that were there for
felony, Underhill "being the first that for
religion was sent unto that prison." One of the
felons had served with him in France. "After
supper," the story continues, "this good fellow,
whose name was Bristow, procured me to have a bed
in his chamber, who could play well upon a rebeck.
He was a tall fellow, and after one of Queen Mary's
guard; yet a Protestant, which he kept secret, for
else, he said, he should not have found such favour
as he did at the keeper's hands and his wife's, for
to such as loved the gospel they were very cruel.
Well, said Underhill, I have sent for my Bible,
and, by God's grace, therein shall be my daily
exercise; I will not hide it from them. Sir, said
he, I am poor; but they will bear with you, for
they see your estate is to pay well; and I will
shew you the nature and manner of them; for I have
been here a good while. They both do love music
very well. Wherefore you with your lute, and I to
play with you on my rebeck, will please them
greatly. He loveth to be merry, and to drink wine,
and she also. If you will bestow upon them, every
dinner and supper, a quart of wine and some music,
you shall be their white son, and have all the
favour they can shew you."
The honour of being "white son" to the governor and
governess of Newgate was worth aspiring after.
Underhill duly provided the desired entertainments.
The governor gave him the best room in the prison,
with all other admissible indulgences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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