her side and a tenth upon her breast--and
they, too, welcomed him with hysterical cries of joy, as if he were on
his way to a festival.[444] Sir Robert Rochester was in attendance at
the stake to report his behaviour. At the last moment he was offered
pardon if he would give way, but in vain. The fire was lighted. The
suffering seemed to be nothing. He bathed his hands in the flame as
"if it was cold water," raised his eyes to heaven, and died.

[Footnote 444: "Cejourdhuy a este faicte la
confirmation de l'alliance entre le Pape et ce
Royaulme par ung sacrifice publique et solempnel
d'ung docteur predicant nomme Rogerus, lequel a
este brule tout vif pour estre Lutherien; mais il
est mort persistant en son opinion, a quoy la plus
grand part de ce peuple a prins tel plaisir qu'ilz
n'ont eu craincte de luy faire plusieurs
acclamations pour comforter son courage; et mesmes
ses enfans y ont assistes le consolantes de telle
facon qu'il sembloit qu'on le menast aux
nopces."--Noailles to Montmorency: _Ambassades_,
vol. iv.]

The same night a party of the royal guard took charge of Hooper, the
order of whose execution was arranged by a mandate from the crown. As
"an obstinate, false, and detestable heretic," he was to be burned in
the city "which he had infected with his pernicious doctrines;" and
"forasmuch as being a vainglorious person, and delighting in his
tongue," he "might persuade the people into agreement with him, had he
liberty to use it," care was to be taken that he should not speak
either at {p.193} the stake or on his way to it.[445] He was carried
down on horseback by easy stages; and on the forenoon of Thursday, the
7th, he dined at Cirencester, "at a woman's house who had always hated
the truth, and spoken all evil she could of him." This woman had
shared in the opinion that Protestants had no serious convictions, and
had often expressed her belief that Hooper, particularly, would fail
if brought to the trial. She found that both in him and in his creed
there was more than she had supposed; and "perceiving the cause of his
coming, she lamented his case with tears, and showed him all the
friendship she could."

[Footnote 445: Mandate for the execut