Yet I would have you know that Master Richard did not yield by a hair's
breadth in thought. He examined the temptation carefully, setting aside
altogether the question as to whether I had spoken as this young man had
said that I had. Whether I had spoken so or not made no difference. It
was this that he was bidden to do, to say that he had erred in his
tidings, to confess that they were not from God; to be a faithless
messenger to our Lord.

He examined this, then, looking carefully at all parts of the
temptation. [Sir John appends at this point two or three paragraphs,
distinguishing between the observing of a temptation of thought and
the yielding to it. He instances Christ's temptation in the Garden of
Gethsemane.]....

At the end Master Richard opened his eyes and looked steadily upon the
young man's face.

"Take this answer," he said, "to those that sent you. I will neither
hear nor consider such words any more. If I yield in this matter, and
say one word to the King or to any other, by which any may understand
that my message was a delusion, or that I spoke of myself and not from
our Lord, then I pray that our Lord may blot my name out of the Book of
Life."

* * * * *

So Master Richard answered and closed his eyes to commune with God. And
the young man went away sighing but speaking no word.