Freda’s sympathies from the outset had been with those independent thinkers, who were in increasing peril of being branded as heretics; and she listened with absorbing interest to the story of the hidden books, the little band of Christian Brothers, the work going on beneath their auspices, and the check temporarily put upon it by the holocaust of books which Dalaber had witnessed at St. Paul’s.

“And you saw it—­you saw them burn the books!  You saw the great cardinal sitting on his throne and watching!  O Anthony, tell me, what was he like?”

“His face I could not well see, I was too far away; but he walked with stately mien, and his following was like that of royalty itself.  Such kingly pomp I have never witnessed before.”

“And our Lord came meek and lowly, riding upon an ass, and had not where to lay His head,” breathed Freda softly.  “Ah, ofttimes do I wonder what He must think of all this, looking down from heaven, where He sits expecting, till His enemies be made His footstool.  I wonder what yonder pageant looked like to Him—­a prelate coming in His place (as doubtless the cardinal would think) to judge those whose crime has been the spreading abroad of the living Word, and now watching the burning of countless books which contain that living Word, and which might have brought joy and gladness to so many.  When I think of these things I could weep for these proud men, who never weep for themselves.  I can better understand the words of Master Clarke when he says, ’Plead with your mother—­plead with her.’”

“We will plead.  We have pleaded already; we will plead again and yet again!” cried Dalaber, with a flash in his dark eyes.  “But methinks a time will come when the day of pleading will be past, and the day of reckoning will come; and she will have to learn that her children will not always suffer her impurities and abominations, but that they will rise up and cleanse the sanctuary from the filthiness wherewith it is defiled.”

“Yet let them not cease to love her,” spoke Freda gently, “for, as Master Clarke truly says, we are all one body—­the Body of Christ; and if we have to war one with another, and rend that body for its own healing, we must yet remember that we are all members one of another even in our strife.”

“It is a hard saying,” spoke Dalaber, “yet I believe it is the truth.  God send us more men like John Clarke, to show us the way through this tangle of perplexities!”

Chapter IV:  “Merrie May Day”

“You will come and hear us sing our ‘merrie katches’ from the tower, sweet ladies.  They should sound sweetly this year, more sweetly than ever, for we have improved in our methods, and our boys have been better taught since Master Radley of Cardinal College has given us his help; and he will come and sing with us, and he hath a voice like a silver bell.”