The murmurs grew louder. While the old chaplains let things take their course, the other wanted to restore morality among Christians. The Reformer was alive to the accusations brought against him, for his was not a heart of steel. Reproaches and calumnies appeared to him sometimes like those impetuous winds which force the husbandman to fly hurriedly for shelter to some covered place. ‘O Lord!’ he exclaimed in his closet, ‘these people pinch me; nay, they have a full bite at me.’[88] He would have desired to flee away to the wilderness, but he called to mind what had been done to his Master; ‘I comfort myself,’ he said, ‘that Christ Himself was noted to be a stirrer up of the people against the emperor.’ The priests, delighted that Latimer censured the king, resolved to take advantage of it to ruin him. One day, when there was a grand reception, and the king was surrounded by his councillors and courtiers, a monk slipped into the midst of the crowd, and, falling on his knees before the monarch, said, ‘Sire, your new chaplain preaches sedition.’ Henry turned to Latimer: ‘What say you to that, sir?’ The chaplain bent his knee before the prince; and, turning to his accusers, said to them, ‘Would you have me preach nothing concerning a king in the king’s sermon?’ His friends trembled lest he should be arrested. ‘Your Grace,’ he continued, ‘I put myself in your hands: appoint other doctors to preach in my place before your Majesty. There are many more worthy of the room than I am. If it be your Grace’s pleasure, I could be content to be their servant, and bear their books after them.[89] But if your Grace allow me for a preacher, I would desire you give me leave to discharge my conscience. Permit me to frame my teaching for my audience.’ Henry, who always liked Latimer, took his part, and the chaplain retired with a low bow. When he left the audience, his friends, who had watched this scene with the keenest emotion, surrounded him, saying, with tears in their eyes,[90] ‘We were convinced that you would sleep to-night in the Tower.’ ‘_The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord_,’ he answered, calmly. The evangelical Reformers of England nobly maintained their independence in the presence of a catholic and despotic king. Firmly convinced, free, strong men, they yielded neither to the seductions of the court nor to those of Rome. We shall see still more striking examples of their decision, bequeathed by them to their successors. Footnote 75: ‘I marked them earnestly in the inward parts of mine heart.’—Latimer, _Remains_, p. 298. Footnote 76: Latimer, _Remains_, p. 208. Footnote 77: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 298 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 78: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 306 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 79: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 309 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 80: Ibid. i. p. 155. Footnote 81: Ibid. p. 223. Footnote 82: Latimer, _Works_, i. p. 85 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 83: Ibid. p. 295. Footnote 84: Ibid. p. 86.