ces bright as the
flames of the fagots into which the murderous hand of an unrighteous
judge had cast them. Ah, I must retract! I, forsooth, am to do as did
Shaxton, the miserable and unfaithful servant of his God, who, from
fear of earthly death, denied the eternal truth, and in blaspheming
pusillanimity perjured himself concerning the holy doctrine. [Footnote:
Burnet, vol. i, p. 341] King Henry, I say unto you, beware of
dissemblers and perjurers; beware of your own haughty and arrogant
thoughts. The blood of martyrs cries to Heaven against you, and the time
will come when God will be as merciless to you as you have been to the
noblest of your subjects! You deliver them over to the murderous flames,
because they will not believe what the priests of Baal preach; because
they will not believe in the real transubstantiation of the chalice;
because they deny that the natural body of Christ is, after the
sacrament, contained in the sacrament, no matter whether the priest be
a good or a bad man. [Footnote: Ibid.] You give them over to the
executioner, because they serve the truth, and are faithful followers of
the Lord their God!"

"And you share the views of these people whom you call martyrs?" asked
the king, as Anne Askew now paused for a moment and struggled for
breath.

"Yes, I share them!"

"You deny, then, the truth of the six articles?"

"I deny them!"

"You do not see in me the head of the Church?"

"God only is Head and Lord of the Church!"

A pause followed--a fearful, awful pause.

Every one felt that for this poor young girl there was no hope, no
possible escape; that her doom was irrevocably sealed.

There was a smile on the king's countenance.

The courtiers knew that smile, and feared it yet more than the king's
raging wrath.

When the king thus smiled, he had taken his resolve. Then there was with
him no possible vacillation or hesitation, but the sentence of death was
resolved on, and his bloodthirsty soul rejoiced over a new victim.

"My Lord Bishop of Winchester," said the king, at length, "come hither."

Gardiner drew near and placed himself by Anne Askew, who gazed at him
with angry, contemptuous looks.

"In the name of the law I command you to arrest this heretic, and hand
her over to the spiritual court," continued the king. "She is damned and
lost. She shall be punished as she deserves!"

Gardiner laid his hand on Anne Askew's shoulder. "In the name of the law
of God, I arrest yo