rt, "unless I do them little favours sometimes."

"You need not seem so any longer," said Cromwell drily, "the time is
past."

And he set his glass down and sat back.

Yet Ralph's respect and admiration for his master became no less. He had
the attractiveness of extreme and unscrupulous capability. It gave Ralph
the same joy to watch him as he found in looking on at an expert fencer;
he was so adroit and strong and ready; mighty and patient in defence,
watchful for opportunities of attack and merciless when they came. His
admirers scarcely gave a thought to the piteousness of the adversary;
they were absorbed in the scheme and proud to be included in it; and men
of heart and sensibility were as hard as their master when they carried
out his plans.

* * * * *

The fate of the Carthusians would have touched Ralph if he had been a
mere onlooker, as it touched so many others, but he had to play his part
in the tragedy, and was astonished at the quick perceptions of Cromwell
and his determined brutality towards these peaceful contemplatives whom
he recognised as a danger-centre against the King's policy.

He was present first in Cromwell's house when the three Carthusian
priors of Beauvale, Axholme and London called upon him of their own
accord to put their questions on the meaning of the King's supremacy:
but their first question, as to how was it possible for a layman to hold
the keys of the kingdom of heaven was enough, and without any further
evidence they were sent to the Tower.

Then, again, he was present in the Court of the Rolls a few days later
when Dom Laurence, of Beauvale, and Dom Webster, of Axholme, were
examined once more. There were seven or eight others present, laymen and
ecclesiastics, and the priors were once more sent back to the Tower.

And so examination after examination went on, and no answer could be got
out of the monks, but that they could never reconcile it with their
conscience to accept the King to be what the Act of Supremacy declared
that he was.

Ralph's curiosity took him down to the Charterhouse one day shortly
before the execution of the priors; he had with him an order from
Cromwell that carried him everywhere he wished to go; but he did not
penetrate too deeply. He was astonished at the impression that the place
made on him.

As he passed up the Great Cloister there was no sound but from a bird or
two singing in the afternoon sunlight of the g