“Oh, well, you must know what Anthony is like by this time.  He can never take aught quietly as other men.  There are scores here in Oxford—­I am one of them myself—­who believe in liberty to think and read what we will, and to judge for ourselves between man and man, even when Holy Church herself is in the question.  God can be ill served in the church as well as the monarch on his throne.  We are not counted rebels and traitors because we condemn a minister of state; why, then, are we to be counted heretics and the scum of the earth because we see the evils and corruption in the lives of cardinals and clergy?

“But to return to Dalaber.  He is never content with just quiet thinking and study; he is all in a flame, and must cry aloud from the housetops, if it were not that he is restrained by others.  He came from London in a perfect ferment.  I trembled to think what he would do next.  But as luck would have it, Cole got hold of him to take a vacant place in his own band for calcio, and since then he has been using his muscles rather than his brain, and an excellent good thing, too.  He is just the man to get into trouble with the authorities, albeit he may not hold half the ‘heresies’ of others who escape.”

“It is his way to throw himself heart and soul into everything he undertakes,” spoke Freda, with a certain quiet satisfaction and approval.  “I think he never stops to count the cost, but tries to see the right path, and to pursue it to the end.”

“Yes, but he might sometimes show a little more discretion with his zeal,” answered Hugh, with a half laugh.  “I have a great liking for Anthony myself.  No man could share his chamber and lack that.  He is the best of comrades, and he has fine qualities and plenty of courage.  But there are times when I fear he will be his own undoing.  When he disputes in the schools he will often tread perilously near some ‘pestilent heresy,’ as the masters would deem it, or show by some of his arguments that he has a dangerous knowledge of forbidden books.  Just now things are quiet in Oxford, and not much notice is taken.  But who knows how long the calm may last?  London has been set in a commotion of late, and is it likely that Oxford will escape, with the cardinal’s eyes fixed upon his college here?”

“At least let us hope and pray that we may be spared persecution,” spoke Magdalen gravely.  “Yet truly I believe that were such misfortune to befall us, Anthony Dalaber would be one of those who would stand the test of his faith with constancy and courage.”

“He would, up to a certain point, I doubt not,” answered Hugh.  “He would go to the stake, I believe, without flinching, were he taken and sent there straight.  But if put in prison, and kept there long, separated from his friends and teachers, and subjected to argument and persuasion and specious promises, well, I know not how he would stand that trial.  Kindness and flattery might win him over, where threats and cruelty failed.”