Your image choices are always so perfect,setting a sense of atmosphere just right for the story.

The tone you open with here was very evocative of the early life of Thomas Cromwell, the dirty streets of london, the beat of the blade. The punctuated speech creates a instant hook and sense of pace that builds through the story. You paint the setting so well, you can feel the bloodied bustle and buzz of the butchers block.

The descriptions of the hole opening are so vivid, reading it is like its opening up before you. The two levels of horror here just work so well, the horror of the unknown, the hole, what lies below, as well as the very real horror of life in this time period, and the serious consequences of something like losing fingers. These two elements build, and combine so well in the ending.

As masterful as ever!