MARGARET ROPER, a prisoner about a month,-to visit him. He en- deavoured to comfort her, on her first visit, by saying, " I believe, Meg, they that have put me here ween they have done me a high displeasure ; but, I assure thee on my faith, mine own good daughter, if it had not been for my wife, and ye that be my children, I would not have failed, long ere this, to have closed myself in as straight a room, and straighter too. But since I am come hither without mine own desert, I trust that God, by His goodness, will discharge me of my care, and, with His gracious help, supply my lack amongyou." She left unsaid no argument, expostulation, or en- treaty that could be urged by passionate love to induce him to relent from his steadfast purpose ; but her eloquence, her tenderness, and her tears proved alike ineffectual. The oath had been ac- cepted by most of the leading public personages ; and she had herself taken it with the reservation of " As far as would stand with the law tf God." She wrote to him, in vehement and impassioned language, to implore him to yield ; but he wrote to her in reply, rebuking her for endeavouring to shake his principles, and concluded by saying " that none of the terrible things that might happen to him touched him so near, or were so grievous to him, as that his dearly beloved child, whose judgment he so much valued, should labour to persuade him to do what would be contrary to his conscience." Margaret's reply was worthy of her : " She submits 18
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