You had ordered her to be racked, if she would not
retract. They did not ask her whether she would do this--they racked
her. But her soul was strong and full of courage; and, under the
tortures of the executioner, her lips remained mute. Let theologians
say and determine whether Anne Askew's faith was a false one; but
this they will not dare deny: that in the noble enthusiasm of this
faith, she was a heroine who at least did not deny her God. At
length, worn out with so much useless exertion, the assistant
executioners discontinued their bloody work, to rest from the
tortures which they had prepared for Anne Askew. The lieutenant of
the Tower declared the work of the rack ended. The highest degrees
had been applied, and they had proved powerless; cruelty was obliged
to acknowledge itself conquered. But the priests of the Church, with
savage vehemence, demanded that she should be racked once more. Dare
deny that, ye lords, whom I behold standing there opposite with
faces pale as death! Yes, my king, the servants of the rack refused
to obey the servants of God; for in the hearts of the hangman's
drudges there was more pity than in the hearts of the priests! And
when they refused to proceed in their bloody work, and when the
lieutenant of the Tower, in virtue of the existing law, declared the
racking at an end, then I saw one of the first ministers of our
Church throw aside his sacred garments; then the priest of God
transformed himself into a hangman's drudge, who, with bloodthirsty
delight, lacerated anew the noble mangled body of the young girl,
and more cruel than the attendants of the rack, unsparingly they
broke and dislocated the limbs, which they had only squeezed in
their screws.
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