Come Rack! Come Rope!

Come Rack! Come Rope! is a historical novel by the English priest and writer Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914), a convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism. Set in Derbyshire at the time of Elizabethan persecution of Catholics, when being or harbouring a priest was considered treason and was punishable with death, it tells a story of two young lovers who give up their chance of happiness together, choosing instead to face imprisonment and martyrdom, so God's will may be done.

Robin Audrey and Marjorie Manners, both aged seventeen, are secretly engaged. They both came from recusant Catholic families in Derbyshire, but she is more devout of the two. Robin's mother died when he was about seven, and his father continued to practise the Catholic faith, despite having heavy fines for refusing to attend services in the established Church of England. The two families meet several times a year, when Mass is being secretly offered by a priest.