"If you have, it was when she was a merry lass, and came to see my daughter. Now she is a widow, bereaved by that wicked man Sir Thomas More, who sent her husband to his reward, through the fires of Smithfield, a year or two ago. Ah, Bainham was one of our truest friends, and ever ready to expound the New Testament, and therefore he was marked down for destruction by those who would fain keep us in the darkness of ignorance."
"And this lady is his widow?" asked Sir Miles.
"Yes. She was left with her two young children helpless in the world. Bainham was a lawyer, but he had little of this world's wealth, and what he had was exhausted while he was in prison; and so, when the end came, and the martyr went in his fiery chariots to the Kingdom not made with hands, I brought Mistress Bainham and her children here to stay for a time, and look after the serving-wenches. And now we should both be grieved to part, for she hath made my home more cheerful and homelike than I ever thought it could be, while she has something to live for, besides sorrowing for him who has gone. She loves the things Master William Tyndale taught us all to love, and keeps his room in order as he left it, in the hope that he may some day come again to dwell among us."
"Do you think that is likely?" asked Sir Miles, eagerly.
"I am afraid not. And yet methinks he might do so now; and I know for certain that Master Cromwell would fain have him come. And now that the Reformers are in favour at Court, and the King rules in the Church, as well as the kingdom, I would fain have him journey hither, for a season at least," added the merchant.
"And you could not persuade him to come? I should greatly like to see him, and would bear the charges of his journey if he would come hither," said Sir Miles.
The merchant rose and closed the door, and looked round the room. "He does not trust the King," he whispered, "or Master Cromwell either, for that matter."
"Ah!" uttered Sir Miles, in a significant tone; but Master Monmouth was too eager to tell his news, to notice this slight interruption.
"Mind you, our friend hath good cause to be wary, for our enemies, having discovered who translated this English Testament, and had it printed, have sent out agents to try and get Tyndale to come over here, where he would be in their power, and they could make a quick end of him. But so soon as he knew one agent was in quest of him, he would gather up his few belongings and depart to another town, where other printing presses would do his work."
"Ah, it has been a stirring life for him, while I—well, I wonder—" and there Sir Miles paused again, and the merchant went on with his story.