From Rise of Protestantism in France to Publication of the Institutes - James Aitken Wylie

the Sorbonne deliver him from that prison, and was
this the sort of life that he was reserving for the
Reformation? Verily he would do great things with
a soul lettered by fear and bound down by a sense
of guilt! No, he could not live thus. He could die --
die a hundred times, but to appear before the
Sorbonne and to say of the Gospel, "I renounce it,"
and of the Savior, "I know him not," that he could
not do.[16] And so when Budseus returned, there
was an air in the face of the prisoner which told its
own tale before Berquin had had time to speak. He
had weighed the two -- recantation and the stake;
and he had chosen the better part -- though
Budaeus hardly deemed it so -- the stake.
The king, who it was possible might interpose
at the last moment and save Berquin, was not
indeed in Paris at this moment, but he was no
farther away than at Blois. The Sorbonne must
despatch their victim before a pardon could arrive
from Blots.
A week's delay was craved in the execution of
the sentence. "Not a day," said Beda.[17] But the
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