I served four monarchs: the old Henry, the boy Edward, the bloody Mary, and the great Elizabeth.
I served four monarchs: the old Henry, the boy Edward, the bloody Mary, and the great Elizabeth. I am perhaps the only man of my rank who attended each of their courts and died in his own bed.\n\nThe trick, reader, is this: have one strong loyalty and many flexible opinions. Mine was to the estate of Brattleby. Religious doctrine, court fashion, the prevailing fear of the moment — these I treated as weather. The land was my creed.\n\nI watched men I loved go to the block for principles they could not bend. I admired them. I did not imitate them. There is a kind of nobility in martyrdom and a different kind of nobility in survival, and the line you serve requires both, in different generations.\n\nWhen you are tested — and you will be — ask yourself: what would I die for? Then ask yourself: what would I prefer to live for? The answer to the second question should not be lower than the first; it should be longer.\n\nGuard the family papers. Burn nothing in haste. The future will judge you by what it can read.
Live long, serve well, and let no court take your soul without a heavy price.