Around Christmas that year he ceased to attend the worship established by law, and fearing the penalty entailed by absence from church decided to leave the county where he was known.
During that time he was reconciled to the Catholic faith in a chamber over the gate at the "Red Lion" in Holborn by Mr. Fortescue, a seminary priest staying there.
[1] In early May 1583 he sailed from Rye in Sussex for Dieppe, arriving at Rheims by way of Rouen by the end of the month.
A fortnight later Hambley relocated to the "Red Lion", placing himself under the direction of the Catholic priest John Cornelius.
Then, on the eve of the Assumption, the Protestant Bishop of Salisbury decided to search the houses of local Catholics, suspecting that he might catch a priest saying mass.