me, especially if I could be burnt to-morrow with my child. Hereunto he
made no answer, but clapped to the door behind me. Well, clap the door as
thou wilt, I greatly fear that the just God will one day clap the doors of
heaven in thy face!




_The Twenty-sixth Chapter_


HOW I RECEIVED THE HOLY SACRAMENT WITH MY DAUGHTER AND THE OLD
MAIDSERVANT, AND HOW SHE WAS THEN LED FOR THE LAST TIME BEFORE THE COURT,
WITH THE DRAWN SWORD AND THE OUTCRY, TO RECEIVE SENTENCE

Now any one would think that during that heavy Tuesday night I should not
have been able to close mine eyes; but know, dear reader, that the Lord
can do more than we can ask or understand, and that his mercy is new every
morning. For toward daybreak I fell asleep as quietly as though I had had
no care upon my heart; and when I awoke I was able to pray more heartily
than I had done for a long time; so that, in the midst of my tribulation,
I wept for joy at such great mercy from the Lord. But I prayed for nought
save that he would endow my child with strength and courage to suffer the
martyrdom he had laid upon her with Christian patience, and to send his
angel to me, woeful man, so to pierce my heart with grief when I should
see my child burn that it might straightway cease to beat, and I might
presently follow her. And thus I still prayed when the maid came in all
dressed in black, and with the silken raiment of my sweet lamb hanging
over her arm; and she told me, with many tears, that the dead-bell had
already tolled from the castle tower, for the first time, and that my