anticipated that his prison was the
antechamber of the scaffold. He had, indeed, taken no pains to avoid it.
The king, according to the unsuspicious evidence of his daughter,
Margaret Roper, had not accused him without cause of exciting a spirit
of resistance. He had spent his time in encouraging Catholics to
persevere to martyrdom for their faith. In his many conversations with
herself, he had expressed himself with all freedom, and to others he
had doubtless spoken as plainly as to her.[455]

[Sidenote: June 26. A true bill found against Sir Thomas More.]

[Sidenote: July 1. He is brought to the bar.]

[Sidenote: Substance of the indictment.]

On the 7th of May he was examined by the same persons who examined Fisher;
and he was interrogated again and again in subsequent interviews. His
humour did not allow him to answer questions directly: he played with his
catechists, and did not readily furnish them with materials for a charge.
He had corresponded with Fisher in prison, on the conduct which he meant to
pursue. Some of these letters had been burnt; but others were in the hands
of the government, and would have been sufficient to sustain the
prosecution, but they preferred his own words from his own lips. At length
sufficient evidence was obtained. On the 26th of June, a true bill was
found against him by the Grand Jury of Middlesex; and on the 1st of July
the High Commission sat again in Westminster Hall, to try the most
illustrious prisoner who ever listened to his sentence there.[456] He
walked from the Tower--feebly, however, and with a stick, for he was weak
from long confinement. On appearing at the bar, a chair was brought for
him, and he was allowed to sit. The indictment was then read by the
attorney-general. It set forth that Sir Thomas More, traitorously imagining
and attempting to deprive the king of his title as supreme Head of the
Church, did, on the 7th of May, when examined before Thomas Cromwell, the
king's principal secretary, and divers other persons, whether he would
accept the king as Head on earth of the Church of England, pursuant to the
statute, refuse to give a direct answer, but replied, "I will not meddle
with any such matters, for I am fully determined to serve God and to think
upon His passion, and my passage out of this world."[457] He was then
charged with having written to Fisher that "The act of parliament was like
a sword with two edges; for if a man answered one way it would conf