the Prior's mass at six o'clock, and had obtained leave
from him the night before to be present at the execution; but the Prior
himself had given no suggestion of coming. Chris had begun to see that
his superior was going through a conflict, and that he wished to spare
himself any further motives of terror; he began too to understand that
the visit to the bishop had had the effect of strengthening the Prior's
courage, whatever had been the intention on the part of the authorities
in allowing him to go. He was still wondering why Ralph had lent himself
to the scheme; but had not dared to press his superior further.

* * * * *

The bishop had made a magnificent speech at his trial, and had
protested with an extraordinary pathos, that called out a demonstration
from the crowd in court, against Master Rich's betrayal of his
confidence. Under promise of the King that nothing that he said to his
friend should be used against him, the bishop had shown his mind in a
private conversation on the subject of the Supremacy Act, and now this
had been brought against him by Rich himself at the trial.

"Seeing it pleased the King's Highness," said the bishop, "to send to me
thus secretly to know my poor advice and opinion, which I most gladly
was, and ever will be, ready to offer to him when so commanded, methinks
it very hard to allow the same as sufficient testimony against me, to
prove me guilty of high treason."

Rich excused himself by affirming that he said or did nothing more than
what the King commanded him to do; and the trial ended by the bishop's
condemnation.

* * * * *

As Chris waited by the scaffold he prayed almost incessantly. There was
sufficient spur for prayer in the menacing fortress before him with its
hundred tiny windows, and the new scaffold, some five or six feet high,
that stood in the foreground. He wondered how the bishop was passing his
time and thought he knew. The long grey wall beyond the moat, and the
towers that rose above it, were suggestive in their silent strength.
From where he stood too he could catch a glimpse of the shining reaches
of the river with the green slopes on the further side; and the freedom
and beauty of the sight, the delicate haze that hung over the water, the
birds winging their way across, the boats plying to and fro, struck a
vivid contrast to the grim fatality of the prison and the scaffold.

A bell sounded o