h my feet, all of them, all who think as they do! I say
that I will shed the blood of these criminals, and prepare for them
torments at which human nature will shudder and quake. God will manifest
Himself by me in fire and blood! He has put the sword into my hand, and
I will wield it for His glory. Like St. George, I will tread the dragon
of heresy beneath my feet!"

And haughtily raising his crimsoned face and rolling his great bloodshot
eyes wildly around the circle, he continued: "Hear this all of you who
are here assembled; no mercy for heretics, no pardon for papists. It is
I, I alone, whom the Lord our God has chosen and blessed as His hangman
and executioner! I am the high-priest of His Church, and he who dares
deny me, denies God; and he who is so presumptuous as to do reverence
to any other head of the Church, is a priest of Baal and kneels to an
idolatrous image. Kneel down all of you before me, and reverence in me
God, whose earthly representative I am, and who reveals Himself through
me in His fearful and exalted majesty. Kneel down, for I am sole head of
the Church and high-priest of our God!"

And as if at one blow all knees bent; all those haughty cavaliers, those
ladies sparkling with jewels and gold, even the two bishops and the
queen fell upon the ground.

The king gazed for a moment on this sight, and, with radiant looks and
a smile of triumph, his eyes ran over this assembly, consisting of the
noblest of his kingdom, humbled before him.

Suddenly they were fastened on Anne Askew.

She alone had not bent her knee, but stood in the midst of the kneelers,
proud and upright as the king himself. A dark cloud passed over the
king's countenance.

"You obey not my command?" asked he.

She shook her curly head and fixed on him a steady, piercing look. "No,"
said she, "like those over yonder whose last death-groan we even now
hear, like them, I say: To God alone is honor due, and He alone is Lord
of His Church! If you wish me to bend my knee before you as my king, I
will do it, but I bow not to you as the head of the holy Church!"

A murmur of surprise flew through the assembly, and every eye was turned
with fear and amazement on this bold young girl, who confronted the king
with a countenance smiling and glowing with enthusiasm.

At a sign from Henry the kneelers arose and awaited in breathless
silence the terrible scene that was coming.

A pause ensued. King Henry himself was struggling for breath