# Quote — Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

> He had said to More, prophecy didn’t make her rich. He makes a memorandum to himself: “Dame Elizabeth Barton to have money to fee the hangman.” She has five days to live. The last person she will see as she climbs the ladder is her executioner, holding out his paw. If she cannot pay her way at the last, she may suffer longer than she needs. She had imagined how long it takes to burn, but not how long it takes to choke at the end of a rope. In England there is no mercy for the poor. You pay for everything, even a broken neck.

- Author: [Hilary Mantel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel.md)
- Book: [Wolf Hall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall.md)
- Page: 535
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel#Wolf_Hall_(2009)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/he-had-said

## More from this book

> One tradesman the same as the next? Not in the real world. Any man with a steady hand and a cleaver can call himself a butcher: but without the smith, where does he get that cleaver? Without the man who works in metal, where are your hammers, your scythes, your sickles, scissors and planes? Your arms and armor, your arrowheads, your pikes and your guns? Where are your ships at sea and their anchors? Where are your grappling hooks, your nails, latches, hinges, pokers and tongs? Where are your spits, kettles, trivets, your harness rings, buckles and bits? Where are your knives?

p. 306 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/one-tradesman-the.md)

> What was England, before Wolsey? A little offshore island, poor and cold.

p. 240 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/what-was-england.md)

> The cardinal used to say, the English will forgive a king anything, until he tries to tax them.

p. 332 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/the-cardinal-used.md)