CHAPTER NINE.
AN OBDURATE HERETIC.
"Great your strength, if great your need."
Henry Kirke White.
In the evening of the same day, the council sent a physician to reporton the prisoner's health. Not gentle Master Simon, but a stern,iron-handed, iron-hearted man, from whom Margery and Alice shrankinstinctively. The physician reported that the Lady Marnell hadundoubtedly been very ill, but was now better, and ailed nothing butweakness; he accordingly recommended that the examination should takeplace, but that the prisoner, in consideration of her extreme debility,should be indulged with a seat. Master Simon tried hard to obtain alittle further postponement; but this time the powerful Abbot wasagainst him, and he gained nothing by his motion. So, on the morning ofthe 17th, Margery rose from her sick-bed to appear before the council.Lord Marnell, who had lately shown her extraordinary kindness, as thoughwith the view of undoing, so far as lay in his power, the evil which hisrash, though well-meant conduct had originally created, assisted hiswife into her litter, and rode beside it during the short journey. Onarriving at the door, where they found a steep flight of steps to mount,Lord Marnell would not allow Margery to try her strength, but carriedher up in his arms. He knew, and so did she, that she would need allthe strength she could muster for the trial which was to come. Thecouncil-chamber was hung with red cloth, and the benches appropriated tospectators were filled to overflowing. For one moment Margery shrankback at the sight of so many strange faces; and a faint tinge of colourmounted to her pale cheek as Lord Marnell led her forward to her chair.In the president's seat was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and on hisleft hand Abbot Bilson. Several abbots, priors, and other legal andecclesiastical dignitaries, made up the remainder of the council.
For eight weary hours, with very short intervals for refreshment, theykept that fragile prisoner before them, and all the time she neverquailed, nor evaded any of their questions. Twice Master Simoninterfered, and begged that wine might be given her, or he would notanswer for her further recovery; and once she herself asked for a glassof water, and for a few minutes seemed about to faint.
Abbot Bilson came out in his true colours at this examination. He wasno longer the mild, persuasive teacher; he now showed himself theunforgiving revenger. The Archbishop pressed the prisoner hard withquestions, many of them irrevelant to the indictment; and most of theother members of the Council put queries to her.
They inquired, amongst other things, if she believed that in theSacrament of the Lord's Supper the bread and wine became the very bodyand blood of Christ.
"Nay, certes," was Margery's answer. "For if Christ, being in life,could hold His own body, and give the same unto His disciples, then wereit no true human body, for a natural and true body cannot be in twoseveral places at the self-same moment of time. Moreover, if the breadof the host be verily the body of Christ, then did He eat His own body,and that is contrary to very reason."
"The mysteries of the faith be above reason," said Arundel.
"Of a truth, and farther above it, maybe, than we wit; but in no wisecontrary thereunto."
"Believe you in Purgatory?"
"The Church teacheth the same, and I say not that it may not be true;but I find it not in the book."
"Pray you unto the blessed Virgin Saint Mary, the holy angels, and thesaints?"
"Soothly, no: it is not in the book. `_Whateuer thing ye axen the Fadirin my name, I schal do that thing_,' saith Christ: but I hear not a wordof `whatever thing ye shall ask Saint Michael, or Saint Anne.'"
"Account you confession unto priests to be right or evil?"
"It may be right--I wis not; but I saw it not in the book. I pray you,reverend fathers, if any other part of God His book do name thesethings, and give leave for the same, that you show it unto me, andthereupon I will believe them, but no else."
The above is, of course, a mere sample of the innumerable questionswhich were put to the prisoner. Towards the close of the day, theArchbishop and abbots consulted together for a few minutes; and thenArundel turned to the accused.
"Margery Marnell, Baroness Marnell of Lymington, the Court demands ofyou whether you will put your name to this paper, and hold to all thingstherein contained?"
"Let me read the paper, my Lord Archbishop, and then I will give you ananswer."
The Archbishop did not wish her to read the paper; but Margery steadilydeclined to sign anything in the dark. At length the council permittedit to be read to her. It contained a promise to abjure all Lollarddoctrines, and to perform a severe penance, such as the council shouldlay on her, for the scandal which she had caused to the Church. Margeryat once refused to sign anything of the kind. The Archbishop warned herthat in that case she must be prepared to submit to the capitalsentence.
"Ye may sentence me," she said, in her clear voice, always distinct,however feeble, "to what ye will. I fear you not. I wis ye have powerto kill my body, but my soul never shall ye have power to touch. Thatis Christ's, who witteth full well how to keep it; and to His blessedhands, not yours, I commit myself, body and soul."
The Archbishop then passed sentence. The Court found Margery, BaronessMarnell of Lymington, guilty of all crimes whereof she stood indicted,and sentenced her to death by burning, in the open place called TowerHill, on the 6th day of March next ensuing.
The prisoner bowed her head when the sentence had been pronounced, andthen said as she rose, and stretched out her hand to Lord Marnell, whocame forward and supported her, "I greatly fear, reverend fathers, thatyour day is yet to come, when you shall receive sentence from a Courtwhence there is no appeal, and shall be doomed to a dreader fire!"
When Lord Marnell had assisted his wife back into her dungeon, and laidher gently on the bed, he turned and shook his fist at the wall.
"If I, Ralph Marnell of Lymington, had thee here, Abbot Thomas Bilson--"
"Thou wouldst forgive him, my good Lord," faintly said Margery.
"Who? I? Forgive _him_? What a woman art thou, Madge! Nay--by thebones of Saint Matthew, I would break every bone in his body! Forsooth,Madge, those knaves the Archbishop and the Abbot have played me a scurvytrick, and gone many times further than I looked for, when I called theminto this business. But it is so always, as I have heard,--thychirurgeon and thy confessor, if they once bear the hand in thy matters,will never let thee go till they have choked thee. I fear I shall havehard labour to get thee out of this scrape. I will do all I can, bethou sure, but thou wist that I am not in favour with the new King as Iwas with King Richard, whose soul God rest! Madge, wilt forgive me,wife?"
"With a very good will, my Lord," said Margery. "I wis well that thouwottedst not all that thou didst."
"Not I, by Saint James of Compostella!" exclaimed Lord Marnell. "Werethe good King Richard alive and reigning, I would soon let both theArchbishop and the Abbot feel the place too hot for to hold them. But Ican do nothing with Harry of Bolingbroke, looking, too, that he hateththe Lollards as he hateth the devil--and a deal more, I trow, for Icount that that prince and he be old friends," added Lord Marnell, withan air of great disgust.
Margery smiled gravely. She felt sorry for her husband, who she saw wasvery miserable himself at the unexpected result of his conduct; but shedid not allow herself for an instant to hope that he could save her.
"Mine own good Lord," she said, "I pray you torment not yourself inassaying my relief, neither in thinking that you be the cause of mytrouble; for I forgive you as freely as Christ hath forgiven me, and Icount that is free enough."
Lord Marnell stood leaning against the wall, and looking at Margery, wholay outside the bed.
"Of a truth, wife, I conceive thee not. Thou art here in the Towerdungeon, and thou lookest for no good outcoming, and lo! thou art calmand peaceful as if thou wert on King Henry's throne! What means it,Madge?"
"I trow I am much happier here than I should be on King Henry's throne!"answered Margery, with a smile. "Christ is with me, good husband, an
dwhere Christ is, is peace. `_Pees I leeue to ghou, my pees I ghyue toghou; not as the world ghyueth I ghyue to ghou_' [John xiv. 27].`_These thingis I haue spoken to ghou, that ghe haue pees in me. In theworld ghe schulen haue disese; but triste ghe, I haue ouercome theworld_?'" [John xvi. 33.]
When Lord Marnell quitted Margery that evening, he hastened to Court,and attempted to gain the ear of the King. Since the deposition of hisfriend and master, King Richard, he had never appeared there. He wasconsequently a stranger to the pages and porters, who tried to get ridof him as politely as they could. At length Lord Marnell caught sightof the Earl of Surrey, who with some hesitation consented to introducehim into the privy chamber. Henry listened to Lord Marnell only untilhe comprehended the nature of his plea; then met him with a frown and anangry--
"Pardon a Lollard? Never!"
"Please it, your Grace, your noble predecessor, King Richard, though noLollard, would have granted me at once, in consideration of my long andfaithful service unto him."
"I am not Richard of Bordeaux, but Henry of Bolingbroke!" was thehaughty answer, as the King turned round abruptly, and quitted LordMarnell.
"By our Lady of Walsingham, I wis full well _that_" replied the latter,_sotto voce_.
As Lord Marnell quitted the palace, he met in the corridor with thePrince of Wales, [Afterwards Henry V] who stopped and saluted him, andLord Marnell at once begged for his intercession with his father. ThePrince readily promised it, but on learning particulars, the son's browdarkened as the father's had done. He was very sorry, but he reallycould not ask the King's pardon for a Lollard. Lord Marnell would havegiven his whole fortune to undo his own work of the last eighteenmonths. He had never dreamed that Abbot Bilson would have summoned thearchbishop to his aid, nor that Margery would have stood half as firmlyas she had done. He only knew her as a fragile, gentle, submissivegirl, and never expected to find in her material for the heroine or themartyr. Lord Marnell tried to procure the mediation of everybody aboutthe Court; but all, while expressing great sympathy with him, declinedto risk their own necks. Even the King's sons said they dared notcomply with his request. Prince Thomas [afterwards Henry V] wasextremely kind--very much grieved that he could not help him; but PrinceHumphrey [Duke of Gloucester] turned scornfully from him, and PrinceJohn [the great Duke of Bedford] coldly bade him take heed to his ownsafety. The Earl of Somerset, the King's half-brother, shook his head,and said he was already suspected by the King to be a Lollard himself,and such an application from him would probably seal his own doom. LordMarnell applied to the Queen [Jeanne of Navarre, the second wife ofHenry IV]; but she seemed most afraid of all to whom he had spoken, lestshe should incur the King's anger, and possibly endanger herself.
The interval between the day of the examination and that appointed forthe execution passed drearily to all parties. Lord Marnell,notwithstanding all these repulses, exerted himself unremittingly toprocure a commutation of the sentence, at least to beheading; but invain. The King was inexorable. If the Lady Marnell had chosen to allyherself with Lollards, she well knew what she was doing, and must abidethe consequences. Vainly did Lord Marnell represent how young andinexperienced she was; in vain did he urge that the Act which made theLollards amenable to capital punishment had been passed since herindictment, and only a few weeks before. Henry was not naturallydisposed to hear his pleasure called in question; and Abbot Bilson hadhad possession of the royal ear already.
When Alice returned from Marnell Place on the evening of the 26th ofFebruary, Margery saw, by the expression of her face, that she had heardsomething which shocked her. She asked what it was.
"You mind, good my Lady, the day that you went with Master Pynson tohear a sermon in Bostock Church?"
"I trow I shall not lightly forget it," was Margery's answer.
"Master Sastre was a-preaching, was he not?"
"Ay. Wherefore?"
"My Lady, he suffered death this forenoon by burning."
"Master Sastre! Who told thee?"
"Christopher it was that told me,--and yon evil man--for sure, though hebe a holy priest, yet is he an evil man, or would he never else have sodealt with your Ladyship--yon evil man, Abbot Bilson was there, and didsore press Master Sastre for to have confessed his error; but MasterSastre did maintain the same to the end."
Margery turned away her head. The venerable image of Sastre rose upbefore her, as he learned forward over the pulpit to say those lastearnest words.
"Ah, dear old teacher!" she whispered to herself. "Thou wilt not havelong to look among the multitude in the white apparel, for _one_ facewhich was upturned to thee that day!"