O Lord, I yield me to thy grace, Grant me mercy for my trespass; Let never the fiend my soul chase. Lord, I will bow, and thou shalt beat, Let never my soul come in hell-heat. [265] Foxe, Acts and Mon. ii. p. 8 (folio 1684), iv. p. 132 (Lond. 1838). We shall in future refer to the latter edition, as being more accessible. The martyr was silent: the flames had consumed their victim. Then redoubled cries of anguish rent the air. His wife and daughter seemed as if they would lose their senses. The bystanders showed them the tenderest compassion, and turned with a movement of indignation towards the executioners. The brutal Chilton perceiving this, cried out:--"Come along; let us toss the heretic's children into the flames, lest they should one day spring from their father's ashes."[266] He rushed towards Alice, and was about to lay hold of her, when the maiden shrank back screaming with horror. To the end of her life, she recollected the fearful moment, and to her we are indebted for the particulars. The fury of the monster was checked. Such were the scenes passing in England shortly before the Reformation. [266] Bade cast in his children also, for they would spring of his ashes. Ibid. The priests were not yet satisfied, for the scholars still remained in England: if they could not be burnt, they should at least be banished. They set to work accordingly. Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, a sincere man, as it would seem, but fanatical, was inveterate in his hatred of Erasmus, who had irritated him by an idle sarcasm. When speaking of _St. Asaph's_ it was very common to abbreviate it into _St. As's_; and as Standish was a theologian of no great learning, Erasmus, in his jesting way, would sometimes call him _Episcopus a Sancto Asino_. As the bishop could not destroy Colet, the disciple, he flattered himself that he should triumph over the master. [Sidenote: 1516 and 1517.] Erasmus knew Standish's intentions. Should he commence in England that struggle with the papacy which Luther was about to begin in Germany? It was no longer possible to steer a middle course: he must either fight or leave. The Dutchman was faithful to his nature--we may even say, to his vocation: he left the country.