112
REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH
[ch. 7.
fact, no other persons, if they had been passed over, could have been called upon to swear, for no other persons had laid themselves open to so just suspicion.
Their conduct so exactly tallied, that they must have agreed beforehand on the course which they would adopt; and in following the details, we need concern ourselves only with the nobler figure.
The commissioners sat at the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth; and at the end of April, Sir Thomas More received a summons to appear before them.[1] He was at his house at Chelsea, where for the last two years he had lived in deep retirement, making ready for evil times. Those times at length were come. On the morning on which he was to present himself, he confessed and received the sacrament in Chelsea church; and 'whereas,' says his great-grandson, 'at other times, before he parted from his wife and children, they used to bring him to his boat, and he there kissing them bade them farewell, at this time he suffered none of them to follow him forth of his gate, but pulled the wicket after him, April 25.and with a heavy heart he took boat with his son Roper.'[2] He was leaving his home for the last time, and he knew it. He sat silent for some minutes, and then, with a sudden start, said, 'I thank- ↑ His great-grandson's history of him (Life of Sir Thomas More, by Cresacre More, written about 1620, published 1627, with a dedication to Henrietta Maria) is incorrect in so many instances that I follow it with hesitation; but the account of the present matter is derived from Mr Roper, More's son-in-law, who accompanied him to Lambeth, and it is incidentally confirmed in various details by More himself.
- ↑ More's Life of More, p. 232.
