[264] A young maid of his house coming by saw her master; she ran home. Ibid. p. 50.
On the following morning--it was Whitsunday--the brutal Chilton and his assistants led Brown to the place of execution, and fastened him to the stake. Elizabeth and Alice, with his other children and his friends, desirous of receiving his last sigh, surrounded the pile, uttering cries of anguish. The fagots were set on fire, while Brown, calm and collected, and full of confidence in the blood of the Saviour, clasped his hands, and repeated this hymn, which Foxe has preserved:--[265]
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.