This offender being thus disposed of, and strict secresy being observed to prevent the spread of alarm, a rapid search was set on foot for books in all suspected quarters. The fear of the authorities was that 'the infect persons would flee,' and 'convey' their poison 'away with them.'[1] The officials, once on the scent of heresy, were skilful in running down the game. No time was lost, and by Monday evening many of 'the brethren' had been arrested, their rooms examined, and their forbidden treasures discovered and rifled. Dalaber's store was found 'hid with marvellous secresy;' and in one student's desk a duplicate of Garret's list—the titles of the volumes with which the first 'Religious Tract Society' set themselves to convert England.
Information of all this was conveyed in haste by Dr London to the Bishop of Lincoln, as the ordinary of the University; and the warden told his story with much; self-congratulation. On one point, however, the news which he had to communicate was less satisfactory. Garret himself was gone—utterly gone. Dalaber was obstinate, and no clue to the track of the fugitive could be discovered. The police were at fault; neither bribes nor threats could elicit anything; and in these desperate circumstances, as he told the Bishop, the three heads of houses conceived that they might strain a point of propriety for so good a purpose as to prevent the escape of a heretic. Accordingly, after a full report of the points
- ↑ Dr London to the Bishop of Lincoln: Rolls House MS.
