Soon Garret found himself sitting over the turf fire, sipping gratefully at the warm milk, in which his bread lay soaked, and telling the old man the whole history of his wanderings, his peril, and his doubts about the plan laid down for him with regard to the curacy he had been offered.

The more he talked, the more did Garret revolt against the idea of presenting himself to Master Dalaber in Dorsetshire under a false name and in false colours.  He could not believe that this could be pleasing to God, and he saw that the old shepherd, though diffident of speech, was of the same opinion.

“I will not do it,” he said at last, “I will not do it.  I cannot.  I will retrace my steps to Oxford, but will use all care and discretion to avoid notice.  They will by this time have discovered my flight, and Oxford is the last place in which they will now be seeking me.  I will enter it by night, slip into one of my old hiding places there, get speech with Anthony Dalaber, and tell him how I have changed my plan, so that he may know I am not with his brother.  Then I will put off my priest’s garb, and sally forth in the night, and make my way over to Wales, and then to Germany, where I can work with the faithful there, and perchance be of greater use to the cause than in this land, where for the present I am so watched and hunted.

“This priest’s garb has become hateful to me.  I feel in it as though I were acting a lie, albeit I shall ever hold myself the minister and priest of God.  It deceives men, who look to see in every garbed priest a servile slave of cardinal and Pope.  I can never, never be such an one; wherefore let me cast away the outer trappings, and cease to deceive the eyes of men.”

The shepherd, who only partially followed this monologue, which Garret uttered half to himself, half to his companion, understood this last argument, and slowly nodded his head.  There was beginning to grow up in the minds of many a fear and horror of the priesthood, not by any means always undeserved, though greatly exaggerated in many quarters.

But to go back to the perils of Oxford to secure a secular dress seemed a far cry; yet, when the men proceeded to talk the matter over, they saw no other way by which such garb could be obtained.  Neither had any money; and it might be dangerous for Garret to show himself at any town to purchase secular raiment there, even if he could beg money at a monastery for his journey.  He thought he knew the place well enough to make the experiment, without too much risk either to himself or to others, and before he stretched himself upon the shepherd’s bed of straw that night his mind was fully made up.