On his release from Derby Jail Fox went home to Leicestershire and then to Staffordshire, holding meetings all along the way. On seeing Lichfield in the distance the Lord told him to go there. About a mile from the town the Lord told him to take off his shoes, which he did, giving them to some shepherds, and when he got to the city the Lord told him to go up and down the streets crying, ‘Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield.’ He writes ‘I went thus crying through the streets, there seemed to be a great channel of blood running down the streets, and the market-place appeared a pool of blood.’ He went out of the town in peace, retrieved his shoes but could not put them on for some time, even though it was winter, as the fire of God was on him. He believed that he was asked to do this because in Roman Times 1,000 martyrs were killed at Lichfield. Historians have not been able to find a record of this so there may have been another reason or perhaps it is just not recorded.