one moved, Mr Rose
called Thekla to him. When she obeyed, he took her hand, and laid it in
Robin's.
"The Lord bless you, and keep you!" he said tenderly. "My son, thou
hast been in sorrow, and God hath been with thee: see thou leave Him not
out of thy joy. May Jesus, who was the chief guest at the wedding in
Cana of Galilee, be with you also, and turn the water of earthly hope
into the best wine of heavenly peace. We have asked Him to the match;
Lord, make One at the marriage!"
There was no voice silent in the Amen.
And then, as if the very act of lifting up his heart to God had borne
him above earth, and he had forgotten the thing that caused it, Mr Rose
went on:--
"`For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord! Thou only, O Christ,
with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father!'"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. There were several prisons which bore this name, one of them in
London. The most horrible of all was that at Woburn, and was, I
believe, the only one constructed on this cruel principle.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
APPENDIX.
HISTORICAL NOTES.
BERNHER, AUGUSTINE.
By birth a German-Swiss, probably from the neighbourhood of Basle. In
contemporary notices often called Latimer's servant; but if the meaning
of the word at that time be borne in mind, and the kind of service
noted, it will be seen that he was only a servant in the sense of being
in receipt of a salary from his employer. He was ordained in or before
the reign of Edward the Sixth; and during the persecution under Mary, no
man was more fervid and fearless than he. At many martyrdoms we find
him consoling the martyr; visiting the condemned prisoners, and forming
the recognised means of communication between them. His safety through
all can only be attributed to the direct interposition of his Almighty
Master. "Mine own good Augustine," wrote Bradford, "the Lord of mercy
bless thee, my dear brother, for ever... The keeper telleth me that it
is death for any to speak with me, but yet I trust that I shall speak
with you." (Foxe's Acts and Monuments, eight 262). At the commencement
of the persecution, Bernher lived at Baxterley, near Mancetter; but for
a time during its height, he was minister of a small London
congregation, which assembled secretly, sometimes in very curious
places, and often on board some vessel in the Thames. Bernher was a
married
|