Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/227

1546.] might, and as merry as one that is bound towards Heaven.'

Her formal trial followed at the Guildhall, where she reasserted the same belief: 'That which you call your God,' she said, 'is a piece of bread; for proof thereof let it lie in a box three months and it will be mouldy. I am persuaded it cannot be God.'

The duty of a judge is to decide by the law, not by his conscience. If there had been a desire to acquit, the judges had no choice before them. After sentence of death had been passed upon her she was taken back to prison, where she wrote a letter to the King, not asking for mercy, but firmly and nobly asserting that she was innocent of crime. She enclosed it under cover to Wriothesley. Whether the chancellor delivered it or kept it, the law was left to take its course.

But the execution was delayed. The Anglo-Catholics had gained but half their object, and they required evidence from her, if possible, which would implicate higher offenders. The state of the King's health made the prospect of a long minority more near and more certain. Lord Audeley and the Duke of Suffolk, who had held a middle place by the side of the King, had died in the past year. The two parties in the Government were more sharply divided and more anxious to shake each other's credit. A strange incident was connected with Anne Ascue's imprisonment. She was found in possession of more comforts than the customs of Newgate supplied: when she was required to confess how she obtained them, it appeared that 'her