Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/148

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
92
THE LIFE OF

following: "I comber you, good Margrett, much, but would be sorry if it should be any longer than to morrow. For tomorrow is Sainct Thomas even, and the Utas of St. Peter, and therefore to morrow I long to go to God: it were a day very meet and convenient for me. Dear Megg, I never liked your manner better towards me than when you kissed me last. For I like when daughterly love and dear charity hath no leisure to look to worldly courtesy." And so upon the next morrow, being Tuesday, St. Thomas his eve, and the Utas of Saint Peter, in the year of our Lord 1535, according as he in his letter the day before had wished, early in the morning came to him Sir Thomas Pope, his singular good friend, on message from the king and his council, that he should before nine of the clock of the same morning suffer death; and that, therefore, he should forthwith prepare himself thereto. "Master Pope," quoth Sir Thomas More, "for your good tidings I heartily thank you. I have been always much bounden to the king's highness for the benefits and honours that he hath still from time to time most bountifully heaped upon me; and yet more bounden am I to his grace for putting me into this place, where I have had convenient time and space to have remembrance of my end. And so, help me God, most of all, Master Pope, am I bounden to his highness that it pleaseth him so shortly to rid me out of the miseries of this