Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/512

492 Kingston told him his name, and then, bursting into tears, said:—

'Oh, consider; life is sweet and death is bitter; therefore, seeing life may be had, desire to live, for life hereafter may do good.'

Hooper answered:—

'I thank you for your counsel, yet it is not so friendly as I could have wished it to be. True it is, alas! Master Kingston, that death is bitter and life is sweet; therefore I have settled myself, through the strength of God's Holy Spirit, patiently to pass through the fire prepared for me, desiring you and others to commend me to God's mercy in your prayers.'

'Well, my Lord,' said Kingston, 'then there is no remedy, and I will take my leave. I thank God that ever I knew you, for God appointed you to call me, being a lost child. I was both an adulterer and a fornicator, and God, by your good instruction, brought me to the forsaking of the same.'

They parted, the tears on both their faces. Other friends were admitted afterwards. The Queen's orders were little thought of, for Hooper had won the hearts of the guard on his way from London. In the evening the mayor and aldermen came, with the sheriffs, to shake hands with him. 'It was a sign of their good will,' he said, 'and a proof that they had not forgotten the lessons which he used to teach them.' He begged the sheriffs that there might be 'a quick fire, to make an end shortly;' and for himself he would be as obedient as they could wish.