Arthur was silent awhile.  In his heart he scarcely believed that the cardinal would offer up Anthony Dalaber to the tender mercies of the implacable bishop; yet there was no knowing.  The great man had evidently been struck by the personality and history of the young graduate, and it was possible he might recognize in him a type of character which might prove dangerous and subversive to the existing order of things.  It was an anxious time for Arthur—­more anxious, as it seemed, than for Anthony, who remained all the while very calm and tranquil, much occupied in reading and prayer, and very constant in his attendance at the various churches in the great city.

Having been for long debarred from taking part in public worship, it seemed a great refreshment of spirit for him to do so now.  Arthur generally accompanied him; but often he rose quite early, and slipped out alone for some morning Mass, and came back with his face aglow with the mystic devotion in which he had been engaged.

“Call that man a heretic!” thought Arthur, as he watched and marked him; and he little knew that he was not the only man dogging Dalaber’s footsteps in those days.  The cardinal had his own methods and his own carefully-trained servants, and not a thing that either young man did in those few days was unknown to Wolsey in his sumptuous palace, with the affairs of the kingdom and of other realms more or less pressing upon his attention.

On the appointed day they again appeared before him in his closet, and he received them with an urbanity which sat graciously upon his rather austere person.

“I have made inquiry concerning the matter upon which you came to me, my sons,” he said, “and to my sorrow and regret I find that you spoke only too truly as to the condition into which the unwholesome state of their prison has reduced those three men.  I have therefore prevailed with the bishop to permit them to be delivered to their friends.

“And if you, Master Cole, who are well known in Oxford, will make personal application to the dean of the college, he will give you the needful authority for obtaining possession of the persons of the prisoners, who will be released and placed under your care.  All that will be demanded of you, or of their friends, is that you will take care of them, and be answerable for their appearing at the bishop’s tribunal, should he summon them later to appear before him.”

Arthur’s heart leaped for joy within him.  He spoke a few words of heartfelt thanks.  But Anthony’s eyes never left the cardinal’s face.

“And shall I surrender myself prisoner in their place?”

A slight smile lighted the thin, pale face.

“Do you so desire to court prison and death, my son?”

“I do not desire it,” answered Anthony humbly.  “I once did think I had courage and strength to fight and to overcome; I did think myself to be a hero.  I have learned to know myself better since then.  Love and life are sweet to me as to other men.  But I did mean that which I did say, and I will not draw back.  If a victim be wanted, let it be rather me than Master Clarke.”