FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96  
97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   >>   >|  
an one interview with Sir Thomas More in the Tower, and once was able to take him news of his own household at Chelsea. For a month none of his own people, except his servant, was allowed to visit him, and Ralph, calling on him about three weeks after the beginning of his imprisonment, found him eager for news. He was in a sufficiently pleasant cell in the Beauchamp Tower, furnished with straw mats underfoot, and straw hangings in place of a wainscot; his bed stood in one corner, with his crucifix and beads on a little table beside it, and his narrow window looked out through eleven feet of wall towards the Court and the White Tower. His books, too, which his servant, John Wood, had brought from Chelsea, and which had not yet been taken from him, stood about the room, and several lay on the table among his papers, at which he was writing when Ralph was admitted by the warder. "I am very glad to see you, Mr. Torridon," he said, "I knew you would not forget an old friend, even though he could not take your counsel. I daresay you have come to give it me again, however." "If I thought you would take it," began Ralph. "But I will not," said More smiling, "no more than before. Sit down, Mr. Torridon." Ralph had come at Cromwell's suggestion, and with a very great willingness of his own, too. He knew he could not please Beatrice more than by visiting her friend, and he himself was pleased and amused to think that he could serve his master's interests from one side and his own from another by one action. He talked a little about the oath again, and mentioned how many had taken it during the last week or two. "I am pleased that they can do it with a good conscience," observed More. "And now let us talk of other matters. If I would not do it for my daughter's sake, who begged me, I would not do it for the sake of both the Houses of Parliament, nor even, dear Mr. Torridon, for yours and Master Cromwell's." Ralph saw that it was of no use, and began to speak of other things. He gave him news of Chelsea. "They are not very merry there," he said, "and I hardly suppose you would wish them to be." "Why not?" cried More, with a beaming face, "I am merry enough. I would not be a monk; so God hath compelled me to be one, and treats me as one of His own spoilt children. He setteth me on His lap and dandleth me. I have never been so happy." He told Ralph presently that his chief sorrow was that he could not go to m
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96  
97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Chelsea

 

Torridon

 

pleased

 
Cromwell
 
friend
 

servant

 
conscience
 

observed

 

matters

 

daughter


Houses
 

Parliament

 

begged

 

Thomas

 

mentioned

 
master
 

talked

 

action

 

household

 
interests

spoilt

 
children
 

setteth

 

treats

 

compelled

 

dandleth

 

sorrow

 
presently
 

things

 

Master


beaming

 

interview

 

suppose

 

papers

 

hangings

 

writing

 

wainscot

 

admitted

 

Beauchamp

 

furnished


underfoot

 

warder

 

eleven

 

narrow

 

window

 

looked

 
corner
 

brought

 

crucifix

 

pleasant