Mistress Ellen, who had been sent for to keep my dear lady company during my illness, and who remained with us until the end, and I sat, with our needlework, at one end of the apartment, whilst these conferences were going on. We did not hear all that was said, but only enough to show that, learned and clever as was Lady Jane's opponent, he was beaten over and over again by the wise and able manner in which she answered his arguments.
Sometimes a few of her sayings reached us, to be treasured up in our minds, as, for instance, when she replied to his arguments about transubstantiation. Her words were these: 'Where was Christ when He said, "Take, eat, this is My body"? Was He not at the table when He said so? He was at that time alive, and suffered not till the next day.
'What took He but bread? What brake He but bread? Look, what He took He brake, and look, what He brake He gave, and look, what He gave they did eat; and yet all this while He Himself was alive and at supper before His disciples, or else they were deceived.'
But the priest would not admit that she was right in that, or in the other statements she made so clearly and forcibly; he was, however, so won by her gentle and courteous demeanour that he prevailed upon the queen to allow her to live three days longer than the time at first specified, that he might be able more effectually to convince her mind.
This short reprieve was the only good he did, to my thinking. But Lady Jane said that having to answer his arguments strengthened and fortified her mind against all doubts, because whilst searching in her Bible for the right answers to give him she gained a deeper insight into the Truth.
'You must remember always, dear Margery,' she said to me, 'that a really good thing does not lose by being examined. For examination only reveals more and more of its intrinsic worth.'
The fact was that she answered all Dr. Feckenham's arguments with such strength and clearness and such firm conviction as showed plainly that religion had been her chief study, and that now it fortified her, not only against the fear of death, but also against all doubts and apprehensions.
It was always with relief, however, that we saw the priest depart, for the strain of all this arguing upon our lady's mind was extremely great, and indeed she was looking worn and tired out.
On the Sunday evening, which was to be her last in this world, she wrote a letter in Greek to her sister Catherine, and put it with a New Testament in the same language which she was bequeathing to her. At my request she translated for me the first part of her letter, which ran, as nearly as I can remember, as follows;—
'I am sending you, my dear sister Catherine, a book which, though not outwardly trimmed with gold or curious embroidery made by the most artful fingers, yet intrinsically is worth more than all the precious mines of which this world can boast. It is the book, my best loved sister, of the law of the Lord; it is His Testament and last Will, which He has bequeathed to us—it will lead you to the path of eternal joy, if you read it desiring to follow its counsels, and will bring you to an immortal, everlasting life. It will teach you how to live and how to die.'