Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/135

 children, and household, be merry, I muse what a God's name you mean here still thus fondly to tarry." After he had a while quietly heard her, with a cheerful countenance he said unto her: "I pray thee, good Mistress Alice, tell me one thing!"—"What is that?" quoth she. "Is not this house," quoth he, "as nigh heaven as mine own?" To whom she after her accustomed homely fashion, not liking such talk, answered, "Tylle valle, Tylle valle." "How say you, Mistress Alice, is it not so?"—"Bone Deus, bone Deus, man, will this gear never be left?" quoth she. "Well then, Mistress Alice, if it be so," quoth he, "it is very well. For I see no great cause why I should much joy in my gay house, or in any thing thereunto belonging, when if I should but seven years lie buried under the ground and then arise and come thither again, I should not fail to find some therein that would bid me get me out of doors, and tell me it were none of mine. What cause have I then to like such a house as would so soon forget his master?" So her persuasions moved him but a little.

Not long after came to him the Lord Chancellor, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, with Master Secretary, and certain other of the privy council, at two several times by all policies possible procuring him either precisely to confess the supremacy, or precisely to deny it, whereunto, as appeareth by his examinations in the said great