Biographical fiction; Christian fiction; Christian saints -- Fiction; More, Thomas, Saint, 1478-1535 -- Fiction
At length we stayed rowing: _Will_ lifted me out, kissed me, heartened
me up; and, indeede, I was in better Heart then, having been quietlie
in Prayer a good While. After some few Forms, we were led through
sundrie Turns and Passages; and, or ever I was aware, I founde myself
quit of my Companions and in _Father's_ Arms.
We both cried a little at first; I wonder I wept noe more, but Strength
was given me in that Hour. As soone as I coulde, I lookt him in the
Face, and he lookt at me, and I was beginning to note his hollow
Cheeks, when he sayd, "Why, _Meg_, you are getting freckled;" soe
that made us bothe laugh. He sayd, "You shoulde get some Freckle-water
of the Lady that sent me here; depend on it, she hath Washes and
Tinctures in Plenty; and after all, _Meg_, she'll come to the same End
at last, and be as the Lady all Bone and Skin, whose ghastlie Legend
used to scare thee soe when thou wert a Child. Don't tell that Story
to thy Children; 'twill hamper 'em with unsavoury Images of Death.
Tell them of heavenlie Hosts a-waiting to carry off good Men's Souls
in fire-bright Chariots, with Horses of the Sun, to a Land where they
shall never more be surbated and weary, but walk on cool, springy Turf
and among Myrtle Trees, and eat Fruits that shall heal while they
delight them, and drink the coldest of cold Water, fresh from the River
of Life, and have Space to stretch themselves, and bathe, and leap,
and run, and, whichever Way they look, meet _Christ's_ Eyes smiling on
them. Sure, _Meg_, who would live, that coulde die? One mighte as lief
be an Angel shut up in a Nutshell as bide here. Fancy how gladsome the
sweet Spirit woulde be to have the Shell cracked! no matter by whom;
the King, or King's Mistress.... Let her dainty Foot but set him free,
he'd say, 'For this Release, much Thanks.' ... And how goes the Court,
_Meg_?"
"In Faith, _Father_, never better.... There is Nothing else there, I
hear, but Dancing and Disporting."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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