Tom was amazed. This was not the outcome he had looked for

'Odds my life, a strange boon! Was it not the fate intended thee?'

'Oh, good my liege, not so! It is ordered that I be boiled alive!'

The hideous surprise of these words almost made Tom spring from his chair.

As soon as he could recover his wits he cried out:

'Have thy wish, poor soul! an thou had poisoned a hundred men thou shouldst

not suffer so miserable a death.'

The prisoner bowed his face to the ground and burst into passionate

expressions of gratitude — ending with:

'If ever thou shouldst know misfortune — which God forbid! — may thy

goodness to me this day be remembered and requited!'

Tom turned to the Earl of Hertford, and said:

'My lord, is it believable that there was warrant for this man's ferocious

doom?'

'It is the law, your grace — for poisoners. In Germany coiners be boiled to

death in oil — not cast in of a sudden, but by a rope let down into the oil by

degrees, and slowly; first the feet, then the legs, then —'

'Oh, prithee, no more, my lord, I cannot bear it!' cried Tom, covering his eyes

with his hands to shut out the picture. 'I beseech your good lordship that

Order be taken to change this law — oh, let no more poor creatures be visited

with its tortures.'

The earl's face showed profound ratification, for he was a man of merciful

And generous impulses — a thing not very common with his class in that fierce

Age.

He said:

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'These your grace's noble words have sealed its doom. History will remember

it to the honor of your royal house.'