‘I asked Mistress Askew, “Do you believe, then, that you are saved?” And she answered, “Truly, I believe I have God’s grace in my heart.” Her eyes were blue, bright as though from an inner light. It moved me to the heart, sir.’ Myldmore’s face worked a moment before he continued: ‘I knelt before her and said, “You have endured, as Christ did. I wish I had your courage and certainty.”’ His eyes were wet now. ‘And then she asked me to say the twenty-third Psalm with her. I did.’ Myldmore whispered, softly, ‘Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me . . .’ Then, as she could not feed herself, she asked me to spoon the broth into her mouth. She could scarce move without terrible pain.’ He paused, then added quietly, ‘I heard she was most brave at the end.’

‘She was,’ I answered. ‘I was there.’

‘Ah.’ He nodded. ‘You were one of the godly folk who went to comfort her.’

I did not contradict him. Myldmore took a deep breath. ‘I left after feeding her. Howitson told me that the next day she was be removed from the Tower to a house – I do not know whose – where she would be lodged to recover. He reminded me to keep my mouth shut. They hoped she would recover sufficiently to walk to the fire. I was angry, sir, more than ever before in my life.’

‘Was it you who set the news afoot she had been tortured?’

‘Yes.’ He clenched his jaw with a new stubbornness. ‘And they know it was. I was in such a fume of anger at what had been done, I told my landlady that same evening that Anne Askew had been tortured in the Tower. But I did not have the courage to name Wriothesley and Rich. My landlady is a good reformer, and also a great gossip. I wanted her to tell others. For that one evening, I did not think of my own safety. Next day it was the talk of the streets.’ He said, sorrowfully, ‘I confess when I heard the story jangled about everywhere, I began to be afraid again.’

He sighed, then continued, ‘And soon enquiries were indeed made, by Master Ardengast. Only those who saw Anne Askew in the Tower, and those in the house to which she was taken, knew what had been done to her. I was questioned by Sir Anthony Knevet himself. I confessed at once. I was so afraid I wet my hose during the interview. Anne Askew did not wet herself,’ he added quietly, in self-disgust.

‘She was a rare creature,’ I said.