d
in the power of the Pope--and they could not sign the paper without
signing what they thought a lie. They had been taught this, and so they
believed it, and they acted bravely according to their own consciences.
More was given five days to think it over, but he did not go back to
Chelsea, and at the end of five days he was taken to the Tower with old
Bishop Fisher.

When he landed at the Traitor's Gate, of which you shall hear more
presently, the porter asked him for his outside clothes, according to a
very bad custom of the time, which allowed the porters to rob the
prisoners thus. More gave him his cap, but the man was not content with
that, and he had to give his outside coat as well.

It was just the beginning of the summer when the two men went to the
Tower, and they were put in separate cells. At first they were not
treated badly, and were allowed pens and paper to write letters; but
afterwards these were taken from them, and More had to write his letters
with a coal. However, he had one great consolation--his daughter was
sometimes allowed to come to see him. Perhaps the King thought that she
would persuade him to give in and sign the paper so that he might go
back home.

When the summer had passed and the weather grew colder, More and Fisher
both suffered from the cold, but especially poor old Bishop Fisher,
whose clothes were in rags. And it was not until a whole year after they
had been sent to the Tower that they were brought up to be tried. More
was taken on foot through the streets to Westminster, a very long
way--more than three miles. He was dressed in common clothes and
surrounded by a guard. Then he was tried at Westminster, and accused of
treason in not acknowledging the King's authority, but the real reason
was that he would not say the King was right in marrying Anne Boleyn.

He was condemned to death. There was a custom in those days that when a
man was condemned to death the executioner walked out of the
judgment-hall before the prisoner with the sharp edge of the axe turned
backwards towards him.

More had been tried in Westminster Hall, of which you have heard
already, and inside there it was very dark; but when he came out into
the bright sunshine he was quite dazzled for the moment and could not
see. But there was someone else who saw--someone who had been waiting in
the crowd in terrible anxiety, and when he saw that axe turned with the
sharp edge toward More he knew it meant death; an