“What have they done to you, Anthony, thus to change you?” cried Arthur, in concern.

“Oh, nothing, as yet.  I have but sat in the stocks two days, till they sent me for closer ward hither.  After Master Garret’s escape bolts and bars have not been thought secure enough out of the prison house.  But every time the bolt shoots back I think that it may be the men come to take me to the Tower.  They have threatened to send me thither to be racked, and afterwards to be burnt.  If it must come to that, pray Heaven it come quickly.  It is worse to sit here thinking and picturing it all than to know the worst has come at last.”

His hands were hot, and the pulses throbbed.  Arthur could see the shining of the dilated eyes.  Dalaber’s vivid imagination had been a rather terrible companion for him during these days of darkness and solitude.  The authorities had shown some shrewd knowledge of human nature when they had shut him up alone.  Some of the culprits had been housed together in the prison, but Dalaber had been quite solitary.

It was not so evil a cell that he occupied as some of the others.  Arthur’s gold had prevailed thus far.  But nothing could save him from the horrors of utter loneliness, and these had told upon him more than greater hardships would have done, had they been shared with others.  It had been characteristic of Dalaber all through his life that he could be more courageous and steadfast for others than for himself.

“Tush, Anthony!  There will be no more such talk now,” answered Arthur, with a laugh.  “They have found out for themselves all that you withheld.  They have laid by the heels enough victims to satisfy the wrath of the bishop and the cardinal.  And already there is a difference in the minds of the authorities here.  In a short while they will become themselves advocates of mercy.  They took a great fright at hearing of heresy in Oxford; but persecution is against the very essence of our existence as a university—­persecution for what men think.  Mine own uncle only last night was beginning to hope that, having laid hands upon the culprits, they would now be gently dealt with.  But for the cardinal and the bishop there would be little to fear.”

Anthony drew a deep breath, as of relief.  His clasp on Arthur’s hands slowly slackened.

“Then they talk not of the Tower for me, or for any?”

“I have heard no word of it.  I am sure such matter is not in their thoughts.  And truly, if heresy be so grievous a crime, they have need to look to themselves; for those same three judges before whom ye were brought, Anthony, have committed an act of heresy for which the penalty is the same death with which they have threatened you and others.”

“What mean you?” asked Dalaber, with wide-open eyes.