"Since ye will not heed the offers of mercy, listen to the words of judgment. On the fourth day from this, at such an hour as shall be hereafter appointed, ye shall be led from your prisons to the field of St. Giles, and there ye shall be hanged alive in chains, being burned while hanging, and your ashes scattered to the winds, that the church may be cleansed from the foul blot of heresy, and the honor of Christ vindicated from the attacks of the Devil."
A solemn silence reigned in the assembly during the enunciation of this terrible doom; but of all that band upon whom all eyes rested, not one showed a sign of fear. After a few moments, the clear tones of the preacher's voice rose again, as firm and unwavering as before, and, raising his right hand, he pointed, with his extended fore-finger toward his judge.
"Arundel, archbishop of York, I stand before you this day as a messenger from God. Thus saith the Lord: In the time when thou dost not expect me, I will draw near; suddenly as in the night, I will come unto thee, and require of thy hand the blood of my elect. And because thou wilt have no answer for me, I will cut thee down in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Men shall seek thee, and shall not find thee, and in the place where thou wentest to and fro thou shalt be no more seen forever. Shall my elect cry unto me and not be avenged? I count the sparrows that fall, and shall my chosen ones perish and I not know it? saith the Lord. Behold I hasten and tarry not, and the cup of my wrath I bring with me. Thou shalt look for help, and there shall none aid thee; a horrible darkness shall fall upon thee, and none can deliver out of my hand!"
The speaker ceased but still he stood, his mantle gathered closely around him, and his piercing eyes fixed on the shrinking, cowering man, at whom the terrible right hand still pointed. Arundel's face had turned from its usual ruddy hue to a deathlike pallor, and he shook as though smitten with an ague. At length a shriek burst from his ashy lips. "Care you not that he hath bewitched me? Away with him, take him away, he hath a devil!"
A grim smile passed over the old man's features, but still he relaxed not his gaze, nor the out-stretched arm, till, with a cry that rang in the ears of those who heard it for many years after, the primate of England rose from his seat, and flinging away his cloak, lest it might impede him, fled from the hall. Then, after a few moments, the arm was slowly dropped, and the preacher turning, passed with his guards down to the door, the crowd pressing back to give him room.
A few months later, while Arundel was sitting in the midst of his friends, the hand of the Lord smote him, and in his speechless agony he looked from side to side, but there was none to help. A moment after, the distorted features had settled into the icy rigidity of death. The Lord had come to him, suddenly, as it were in a moment, and required at his hand the blood of his saints!
CHAPTER VII.
As the Stars forever and ever.
Calmly and brightly the sun rose on the morning of the fourth day after the trial; as calmly and brightly he climbed toward the zenith, as though he were not to look down upon one of the most fiendish deeds that ever disgraced England's soil. In the field of St. Giles, in the outskirts of the city, workmen were busy putting finishing touches to a strange piece of carpentry. A row of holes had been dug at a distance of about six feet from each other, and in these were placed stout beams of wood. Another row was then put about ten feet from the first, and the same kind of posts being inserted, crossbeams were fastened from a spot of one row to the corresponding one in the other. Another construction of the same kind was placed on one side of the first, leaving an open space of some twenty feet in width between. On each of the crossbeams were fastened heavy chains, each terminating in a large iron ring. Meanwhile other men had been arriving, bearing fagots of dry wood, which were arranged in order under the chains, and then the men all paused and looked toward the town.
Not long had they to wait. A procession soon appeared, headed by a guard of foot-soldiers, who encircled the rows of gallows, for such they were, and so made way for the rest of the train to approach. Next came the executioners, some with lighted torches, others with blacksmith's hammers. Then came the thirty-nine prisoners, each accompanied by a friar of some order, followed by another guard, and lastly the rabble, consisting of all the mob of London, clustered as closely as the troops would permit them. Some of the Lollards looked pale and haggard, and their limbs, so long chained in damp dungeons, seemed hardly capable of dragging them along. Each, as he reached the spot, cast a glance at the instruments of torture, but none drew back, or shrank from the fearful sight. To their illumined vision those piles of fagots, those bars, those chains, were but so many Jacob's ladders, gates to heaven.