Come Rack! Come Rope!

In Short

Set during the high Elizabethan persecution of the 1570s and 1580s, Come Rack! Come Rope! is a historical novel following Robin Audrey and Marjorie Manners. When Robin’s father apostatizes to protect his wealth, Robin commits himself to the secret priesthood, while Marjorie renounces her love for him to sustain the covert network hiding priests across Derbyshire. As English authorities intensify their crackdowns through informers and torture, Robin returns from abroad to minister to the underground Church. The book endures for its unvarnished portrait of religious underground networks, its detailed historical geography, and its refusal to romanticize the agonizing physical and spiritual costs of martyrdom.

The Story

The novel opens in Derbyshire as young Robin Audrey learns that his father, tired of heavy recusancy fines, intends to conform to the established Church of England. Tormented by his father’s capitulation, Robin confides in his beloved, Marjorie Manners. Though deeply in love with Robin, Marjorie sees his father's apostasy as a summons from God. She encourages Robin to resist his father’s path and discern a higher calling. Robin travels to Rheims, France, where he enters the seminary to be ordained as a Catholic priest. Marjorie accepts the sacrifice of their earthly future, choosing to remain in England as a organizer for the clandestine Catholic resistance.

Upon completing his training, Robin returns to England under the alias of Mr. Alban. He enters a shadowy, highly dangerous world where priests move between safe houses, perform mass in hidden chapels, and evade pursuivants. Marjorie works tirelessly alongside regional gentry, coordinating hiding-holes designed by the master craftsman Hugh Owen, arranging travel routes, and passing warnings about upcoming raids. Historical figures intermingle with the main narrative: Robin encounters the eloquent Jesuit Father Edmund Campion, witnesses the desperate political plotting of Anthony Babington, and observes the tight security surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots, during her captivity at Chartley and Fotheringay.

As the state’s counter-intelligence network tightens around Derbyshire, the threat of detection grows acute. Religious houses are systematically searched, and local magistrates—including Robin’s own father—are pushed by the crown to demonstrate their loyalty by hunting down hidden clerics. Priests like Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam are captured at Padley Hall and condemned. The ruthless interrogator Richard Topcliffe arrives in Derbyshire, bringing his notorious reputation for extracting confessions through the rack.

Despite the constant danger, Robin continues his ministry until he is eventually tracked down on the moors and arrested. Imprisoned in Derby, he faces interrogation and severe torture in the tower, yet he refuses to betray his host networks or renounce his priesthood. Marjorie visits him in his cell prior to his trial, offering spiritual comfort as he prepares for execution.

On the day of his public execution, Robin is led to the scaffold to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Standing on the ladder, he leads the crowd in prayer for the Queen, the nation, and the Church. Just before he is turned off, his frail, aging father—broken by remorse for his own compromises—rushes to the base of the ladder, kneeling in tears to ask for forgiveness. Recognizing him, Robin speaks the words of absolution from the scaffold. The sentence is carried out, and Robin dies praying, completing his sacrifice while Marjorie watches from the crowd.

How It Unfolds

The vow of departure After learning of his father's planned conformity to the state church, Robin Audrey visits Marjorie Manners to seek counsel. Inspired by her conviction that his father’s failing demands a spiritual answer, Robin resolves to abandon his comfortable life in Derbyshire and travel to France to train for the priesthood.

The underground network Returning to England as Father Alban, Robin enters a country crisscrossed by spies and informers. He learns the practical mechanics of survival, relying on hidden chambers built into stone chimneys by Hugh Owen and secret mass stations organized by local women, including Marjorie.

The Babington shadow In London and Derbyshire, Robin encounters Anthony Babington and his circles, who debate whether political intrigue and force are justified against the crown. Robin and older priests like Father Campion reject physical insurrection, advocating instead for patient spiritual endurance despite the political chaos surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots.

The net closes Local authorities step up searches across Derbyshire under the direction of Lord Shrewsbury and magistrate Topcliffe. Priests are captured at Padley Hall, and Robin’s father is forced into presiding at trials, illustrating the bitter divisions tearing through local families.

Capture and the tower Trapped on the upland moors after fleeing a raid, Robin is apprehended by pursuivants and brought to Derby. Locked in a cold cell, he faces grueling sessions of torture administered by Topcliffe but remains silent regarding the identities of his benefactors.

The scaffold at Derby Robin is brought to the place of execution before a packed crowd. He offers his final prayers for the realm and grants conditional absolution to his repentant father at the foot of the ladder before enduring his martyrdom.

The People

• Robin Audrey (Father Alban) wants to serve his faith faithfully without betraying his conscience or his country. Initially a simple country gentleman torn between romantic devotion and filial duty, his spiritual resolve hardens through his training at Rheims and his underground ministry, ultimately facing torture and death with quiet fortitude.
• Marjorie Manners wants to preserve the Catholic faith in Derbyshire and support Robin’s priestly vocation. Intelligent, decisive, and deeply devout, she sacrifices her personal hope of marriage to become the logistical heart of the local underground network, coordinating priest-helpers and safe houses.
• Squire Audrey wants to preserve his property, social standing, and family wealth from ruinous recusancy fines. His fear leads him to conform outwardly to the Elizabethan settlement, setting off a devastating rift with his son and leaving him broken by guilt at the story's climax.
• Anthony Babington wants to liberate Mary, Queen of Scots, and restore Catholicism by political and military conspiracy. Impetuous and fiery, his reckless plotting stands in sharp contrast to the non-violent, purely pastoral mission of Robin and Father Campion.
• Father Edmund Campion wants to bring spiritual reconciliation and sacraments to English Catholics. Eloquent, serene, and intellectually formidable, he inspires the younger priests before his own capture and execution on the rack.
• Richard Topcliffe wants to eradicate Popish recusancy through relentless state coercion. Cold and methodical, he acts as the primary instrument of state torture, searching out hiding-holes and interrogating captives.

In Its Own Voice

"The father would no longer be His worshipper? Then let the son be His priest; and so the balance be restored."

Marjorie’s mother realizes the hidden motivation behind her daughter's quiet tears after Robin announces his departure for the seminary in France.

"A hundred thoughts had gone through his mind since he had flung himself down here shaking with passion... It is a dreadful day when for the first time to a young man or maiden, any shadow of God, however unworthy, begins to tremble."

Sitting alone in his unheated room, Robin grapples with the sudden collapse of his father's integrity and the loss of his quiet future.

"If the book is too sensational, it is no more sensational than life itself was to Derbyshire folk between 1579 and 1588."

The author frames his narrative in the preface, underscoring that the harrowing searches, hiding-holes, and public executions were drawn from factual historical records of the region.

What It's Really About

Come Rack! Come Rope! investigates the absolute claims of conscience against the overwhelming authority of the early modern nation-state. It asks what happens when personal religious conviction is defined by the law as political treason, forcing individuals to choose between temporal survival and spiritual integrity.

Underneath its suspenseful plot of searches and escapes, the book explores the nature of sacrifice. It contrasts two different responses to persecution: the political, conspiratorial path of Anthony Babington, which relies on force and statecraft, and the interior path of Robin and Marjorie, which relies on personal renunciation, forgiveness, and non-violent endurance. Benson highlights how state pressure destroys families from within, creating a world where fathers sit in judgment over sons, and neighbours are forced to turn informers to safeguard their own land.

Why Read It Today

This novel appeals to readers of historical fiction who appreciate meticulous period detail over romanticized heroism. Benson writes with a strong sense of place, capturing the stark, rainy landscapes of the Derbyshire Peak District, the claustrophobic silence of hidden priest-holes, and the tense atmosphere of Elizabethan market towns during public trials.

The prose is measured, patient, and precise, avoiding hyperbole even when describing extreme physical hardship. The book does present historical difficulties for modern readers: the pacing reflects early 20th-century sensibilities, with extensive dialogues on 16th-century theology, legal fine points, and church politics that slow down the narrative drive. Additionally, the perspective is unapologetically sympathetic to the Catholic martyrs, framing the Elizabethan state apparatus primarily through its instruments of coercion.

What stays with the reader is the stark realism of its ending and its structural discipline. Rather than engineering a last-minute rescue or a conventional happy ending for Robin and Marjorie, Benson follows the historical record of the Elizabethan penal laws to its logical, painful conclusion. The narrative leaves a lingering impression of the sheer physical courage required of ordinary people trapped in the ideological conflicts of their era.