Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/510

490 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.

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 detestible heretic,' he was to 'be burned in the city 'which he had infected with his pernicious doctrines;' and 'forasmuch as being a vain-glorious 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 the stake or on his way to it. 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