Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/97

 For sometime may I by my word stand your friend in stead, and sometime may I by my letter help him; or if he have a cause depending before me, at your request I may hear him before another. Or if his cause be not all the best, yet may I move the parties to fall to some reasonable end by arbitrement. Howbeit this one thing, son, I assure thee on my faith, that if the parties will at my hands call for justice, then all-were it my father stood on the one side, and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have right. So offered he his son as he thought, he said, so much favour as he could with reason require. And that he would for no respect digress from justice, well appeared by a plain example of another of his sons-in-law called Master Heron. For when he, having a matter before him in the Chancery, and presuming too much of his favour, would by him in no wise be persuaded to agree to any indifferent order, then made he in conclusion a flat decree against him. This Lord Chancellor used commonly every afternoon to sit in his open hail, to the intent that if any person had any suit unto him, they might the more boldly come to his presence, and there open their complaints before him. Whose manner was also to read every bill himself, ere he would