“Yes or no,” repeated Cromwell to himself—“the world is summed up in those two words; only it is necessary to manage them well. Go, clerk,” he said, “call Master Southwell.”
And the clamorous voice of the clerk resounded through the vast enclosure where he kept the witnesses.
“Master Palmer! Master Richard Palmer!” he repeated; and Master Palmer presented himself.
“You swear,” said Audley to the witness, “that the testimony you are about to render before this court, and before the jury interposed between your sovereign lord the king and the prisoner here present at the bar, will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God!”
As the chancellor said these words, they brought the book of the Holy Evangelists, and opened it, in order that Palmer might lay his hand on it to swear.
“But, my lord,” said Palmer, anxiously looking around him, “I know nothing, nothing at all, about what you are going to ask me.”
“Well, you need only tell what you know,” said Audley brusquely.
“Very well, then,” said Palmer in a low voice; and laying his hand on the book, he was sworn in the usual manner.
“What did you hear while removing the books belonging to Sir Thomas?”
“Nothing, my lord. I threw the