"Thomas More knew him very well, and in a few striking words he
summed up the whole of the king's character. Ah, it seems to me that
I see now the quiet and gentle face of this wise man, as I saw him
standing in yonder bay-window, and near him the king, his arms
around the neck of High-Chancellor More, and listening to his
discourse with a kind of reverential devotion. And when the king had
gone, I walked up to Thomas More and congratulated him on the high
and world-renowned favor in which he stood with the king. 'The king
really loves you,' said I. 'Yes,' replied he, with his quiet, sad
smile, 'yes, the king truly loves me. But that would not for one
moment hinder him from giving my head for a valuable diamond, a
beautiful woman, or a hand's breadth of land in France.' [Footnote:
Leti, vol. i, p 194.] He was right, and for a beautiful woman, the
head of this sage had to fall, of whom the most Christian emperor
and king, Charles V., said: ' Had I been the master of such a
servant, of whose ability and greatness we have had so much
experience for many years; had I possessed an adviser so wise and
earnest as Thomas More was, I would rather have lost the best city
of my realm, than so worthy a servant and counsellor.' [Footnote:
Tytler, p. 354.]
"No, Jane, be that your first and most sacred rule, never to trust
the king, and never reckon on the duration of his affection and the
manifestations of his favor. For, in the perfidy of his heart, it
often pleases him to load with tokens of his favor those whose
destruction he has already resolved upon, to adorn and decorate with
orders and jewels to-day those whom to-morrow he is going to put to
death.
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