t I set foot on my native England, that
moment her form seemed to rise from the tall cliffs, her voice to speak
in the winds! All the glamour by which I had been bound, forsook me; and
I sprang forward in scorn, above the fear of the dead men's bones.
Miserable overcraft of the snarer! Had my simple word alone bound me, or
that word been ratified after slow and deliberate thought, by the
ordinary oaths that appeal to God, far stronger the bond upon my soul
than the mean surprise, the covert tricks, the insult and the mocking
fraud. But as I rode on, the oath pursued me--pale spectres mounted
behind me on my steed, ghastly fingers pointed from the welkin; and then
suddenly, O my father--I who, sincere in my simple faith, had, as thou
knowest too well, never bowed submissive conscience to priest and
Church--then suddenly I felt the might of some power, surer guide than
that haughty conscience which had so in the hour of need betrayed me!
Then I recognised that supreme tribunal, that mediator between Heaven and
man, to which I might come with the dire secret of my soul, and say, as I
say now, on my bended knee, O father--father--bid me die, or absolve me
from my oath!"

Then Alred rose erect, and replied, "Did I need subterfuge, O son, I
would say, that William himself hath released thy bond, in detaining the
hostage against the spirit of the guilty compact; that in the very words
themselves of the oath, lies the release--'if God aid thee.' God aids no
child to parricide--and thou art England's child! But all school
casuistry is here a meanness. Plain is the law, that oaths extorted by
compulsion, through fraud and in fear, the Church hath the right to
loose: plainer still the law of God and of man, that an oath to commit
crime it is a deadlier sin to keep than to forfeit. Wherefore, not
absolving thee from the misdeed of a vow that, if trusting more to God's
providence and less to man's vain strength and dim wit, thou wouldst
never have uttered even for England's sake--leaving her to the
angels;--not, I say, absolving thee from that sin, but pausing yet to
decide what penance and atonement to fix to its committal, I do in the
name of the Power whose priest I am, forbid thee to fulfil the oath; I do
release and absolve thee from all obligation thereto. And if in this I
exceed my authority as Romish priest, I do but accomplish my duties as
living man. To these grey hairs I take the sponsorship. Before this
holy cros