Выбрать главу

A jailer took her up a winding staircase and unlocked a heavy door. She was in a cell, a cell with stone walls and a stone floor; and then she saw no more of it, for there he was, smiling at her, hurrying to greet her.

She looked into his face and noticed how pale he was, how hollow were his eyes. He had changed. Yet… he could still smile, he could still feign a gaiety which he could not possibly feel.

“Meg … my own Meg!”

“My Father!” She was kissing him, clinging to him. “Oh, Father, how are you? What have they done to you? You have grown thin and your beard is unkempt, and your clothes … Oh, Father … Father … what can I do? What can I say?”

“Come,” he said. “Sit down, Meg. My jailer is a kind man. I have these stools…. Many people have been kind to me, Meg. My good friend, Bonvisi… he sends meat and wine … and I am allowed to have my good John a Wood here with me to look after me. You see, I am not treated badly. I am well looked after here.”

She tried to smile.

“Why, Meg, how are you? You are looking well. The sun has touched you. How are my dear sons and daughters? Bid them be of good cheer, Meg. You can do it.”

“To be of good cheer!” she cried. “Father, let there be no pretence between us. Do not let us deceive ourselves and say, ‘This will pass,’ when we know there is only one way in which it could pass, and that you have determined against it.”

“Let us talk of other things, dear daughter.”

“How can I? What can I tell the children?”

“It may be, Meg, that you will have to speak to them of death. And if that be so, let them see it as a beautiful thing. Let them see it as release to beauty, to joy, to happiness such as this Earth cannot offer. Tell them that the man is dreaming who thinks in this life he is rich, for when death wakes him he will see how poor he is. Tell them that those who suffer at the hands of unjust men should take hope. Let kindly hopes console your suffering, Meg. He who is carried away by great wealth and empty pride, he who stands so bold among his courtiers, will not always be so bold. One day he will be equal with the beggars. Ah, what gift has life given that compares with death? You will find that he who can in life inspire fear, in death inspires nothing but laughter. Oh, Meg, Meg, lift up thy spirits. Do not grieve because I must come to that which awaits us all. My spirit is ready to break its shell. What matters it who cracks that shell. It may be the King. It may be the King's ministers. It may be the King's mistress.”

“Do not speak of her, Father. When you do, my heart is filled with hatred. I think of her as when we first heard of her and she seemed naught but a frivolous girl. I did not know then that she was a wicked wanton … a would-be murderess of saintly men.”

“Hush, Meg! Do not speak ill of her. Pity her rather than condemn. For how do we know, poor soul, to what misery she may come?”

“I will not pity her, Father. I will not. But for her, you would be with us at home in Chelsea … all together … as we used to be. How can I pity her? How can I do aught but curse her?”

“Meg, you must have pity. She dances gaily at the Court, I hear; and these dances of hers will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads off like footballs; but, Meg, it may not be long before her own poor head will dance the like dance.”

“Father, what does it matter … what does anything matter if you but come home to us? Could you not… ?”

“Nay, Meg, I know what I must do.”

“But what will happen?”

“We shall see.”

“My lord Bishop of Rochester is also in the Tower.”

“My jailer told me. I knew my dear friend Fisher must do this … even as I must.”

“The monks of the Charterhouse refuse to acknowledge the King's Supremacy, Father.”

“My good friends? It is what I would expect of them.”

“But, Father, is it right… is it lawful that they should imprison you for this? What have you done? You have merely refused to take an Oath. Is it then the law that a man may be imprisoned for this?”

“Ah, Meg, the King's pleasure is the law. It is a great pity that any Christian prince should, by a flexible Council ready to follow his affections, and by a weak clergy lacking grace constantly to stand to their learning, be so shamefully abused with flattery.”

“But, Father, is it worth it, think you? Could you not… take the Oath … and retire from Court life altogether? Live with us … your family … as you long to live. You have your library … your home … all that you love. Father, you are no longer young. You should be at home with your sons and daughters, with your wife….”

“Why, have you come here to play the temptress, then? Nay, Mistress Eve, we have talked of this thing more than once or twice. I have told you that if it were possible to do this thing that would content the King, and God therewith would not be offended, then no man would have taken the Oath more gladly than I.”

“Oh, God in heaven,” she cried, “they are coming to tell me I must go. Father … when shall I see your face again?”

“Be of good cheer, Meg. Ere long, I doubt not.”

She embraced him, and she saw the tears on his cheeks.

She thought: My coming has not cheered him; it has distressed him.

* * *

ALICE HAD permission to visit him.

She was truculent, more full of scolding than usual; that was because she was so unhappy.

She stood in the doorway, her sharp eyes taking in the cell in all its comfortless gloom.

“What the good year, Master More!” she cried. “It is a marvelous thing to me that you have always been taken for such a wise man. Here you are, playing the fool, as is your wont. You lie here in this close, filthy prison, and you are content to be shut up with mice and rats, when you might be abroad and at your liberty, enjoying the favor of the King and his Council. And all you must do is as the Bishops and learned men of this realm have done. And seeing you have at Chelsea a right fair house, your library, your gallery, your garden, your orchards and all other necessaries so handsome about you, where you might be in the company of your wife and children and with your household be merry, I muse what in God's name you mean, here so fondly to tarry.”

“Alice … Alice, it is good to see you. It is good to hear you scold me. Come, wife. Sit down. Sit on this stool which my good jailer has provided for me. We do well, here, John a Wood and I. My good friend Bonvisi sends more meat and drink than we need. Have no fear.”

“So you like this place better than your home. Is that it? Is that what you would tell me?”

“Is this house not as nigh Heaven as my own?” he asked.

“Tilly valley! Tilly valley! What nonsense you talk! All the prisons in the world could not alter that, I see.”

“But answer me, Alice. Is it not so?”

“By the good God, will this gear never be left?”

“Well, Mistress Alice, if it be so, and I believe you know it to be so and that is why you will answer with nothing but ‘Tilly valley!’ that is well. I see no great cause why I should have much joy in my handsome house or in anything belonging to it, when if I should be but seven years buried under the ground and then arise and come thither, I should not fail to find someone therein who would bid me get out of doors and tell me it was none of mine. What cause have I then to like such a house as would so soon forget its master?”

“Tut and tut! Have done with this talk. What of your clothes? Have you anything for me to wash? And what a filthy place is this! And what does Master a Wood think he is doing not to look to your comforts more? It seems to me Master More, that you are a fool… surrounded by fools….”