His spirits declined; his health gave way; yet he neither flinched from his duty nor attempted to revenge himself on his persecutors.

A few days after his consecration, some persons were seized while dispersing libels in which he was reviled.

The law officers of the Crown proposed to institute prosecutions; but he insisted that nobody should be punished on his account.

[48] Once, when he had company with him, a sealed packet was put into his hands; he opened it; and out fell a mask.

His friends were shocked and incensed by this cowardly insult; but the Archbishop, trying to conceal his anguish by a smile, pointed to the pamphlets which covered his table, and said that the reproach which the emblem of the mask was intended to convey might be called gentle when compared with other reproaches which he daily had to endure.