Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/229

1546.] the Lieutenant of the Tower, lifted her off in his arms. She swooned, and was laid on the floor; and when she recovered, the chancellor remained two hours longer labouring to persuade her to recant. But, as she said, she thanked God she had strength left to persevere; she preferred to die, and to death they left her.

On the 16th of July she was carried out with her three companions to the scene of so many horrors, and chained to a stake. Four members of the council, brought thither, it is to be said, by duty, not by curiosity or vindictiveness, took their places on a raised bench in front of St Bartholomew's Church, and when all preparations were completed, Shaxton, once the most troublesome of the Protestants, now, in the recoil of cowardice degenerate into a persecutor, preached a sermon. The sufferers listened calmly, and when the preacher ceased Wriothesley sent them their pardons on condition of recantation. But neither Anne nor