peak, his bright tired eyes
shining down on the solemn faces, and his mouth set and precise.

"Well, gentlemen," he said, "your talk has pleased me very much. I have
learned a great deal, and I hope shall profit by it. Some of you have
talked a quantity of nonsense; and you, Mr. Miggers, have talked the
most, about your uncle John's soul and bones."

A deadly silence fell as these startling words were pronounced; for his
manner up to now had been conciliatory and almost apologetic. But he
went on imperturbably.

"I am quite sure that Almighty God knows His business better than you or
I, Mr. Miggers; and if He cannot take care of Uncle John without the aid
of masses or dirges sung by fat-bellied monks--"

He stopped abruptly, and a squirt of laughter burst from the butcher.

"Well, this is my opinion," went on Ralph, "if you wish to know it. I
do not think, or suspect, as some of you do--but I _know_--as you will
allow presently that I do, when I tell you who I am--I _know_ that these
houses of which we have been speaking, are nothing better than
wasps'-nests. The fellows look holy enough in their liveries, they make
a deal of buzz, they go to and fro as if on business; but they make no
honey that is worth your while or mine to take. There is but one thing
that they have in their holes that is worth anything: and that is their
jewels and their gold, and the lead on their churches and the bells in
their towers. And all that, by the Grace of God we will soon have out of
them."

There was a faint murmur of mingled applause and dissent. Mr. Miggers
stared vacant-faced at this preposterous stranger, and set his mug
resolutely down as a preparation for addressing him, but he had no
opportunity. Ralph was warmed now by his own eloquence, and swept on.

"You think I do not know of what I am speaking? Well, I have a brother a
monk at Lewes, and a sister a nun at Rusper; and I have been brought up
in this religion until I am weary of it. My sister--well, she is like
other maidens of her kind--not a word to speak of any matter but our
Lady and the Saints and how many candles Saint Christopher likes. And my
brother!--Well, we can leave that.

"I know these houses as none of you know them; I know how much wine they
drink, how much they charge for their masses, how much treasonable
chatter they carry on in private--I know their lives as I know my own;
and I know that they are rotten and useless altogether. They may give a
pla