But the wicked seized the innocent and the innocent said nothing, fearing lest I should suffer with them, and----O God, you know the rest! "It was a near thing, a very near thing, but I'm not the half-wit I've feigned to be for years.

Moreover, I had a good horse and a heavy axe, and there are still true hearts round Blossholme; the dead men that lie yonder show it.

Heaven has still its angels on the earth, though they wear strange shapes.

There stands one of them, and there another," and he pointed first to the fat and pompous Visitor, and next to the dishevelled Prioress, adding: "And now, Sir Commissioner, for all that I have done in the cause of justice I ask pardon of you who wear the King's grace and majesty as I wore old Nick's horns and hoofs, since otherwise the Abbot and his hired butchers, who hold themselves masters of King and people, will murder me for this as they have done by better men.

Therefore pardon, your Mightiness, pardon," and he kneeled down before him.
"You have it, Bolle; in the King's name you have it," replied Legh, who was more flattered by the titles and attributes poured upon him by the cunning Thomas than a closer consideration might have warranted.