assed out of the personal plane into an higher, and he
thought of his brother as God's enemy rather than his own. Would his
prayers then never prevail--the prayers that he speeded up in the smoke
of the great Sacrifice morning by morning for that zealous mistaken
soul? Or was it perhaps that that brother of his must go deeper yet,
before coming out to knowledge and pardon?

CHAPTER IV

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SEAL

The autumn drew in swiftly. The wet south-west wind blew over the downs
that lay between Lewes and the sea, and beat down the loose browning
leaves of the trees about the Priory. The grass in the cloister-garth
grew rank and dark with the constant rain that drove and dropped over
the high roofs.

And meanwhile the tidings grew heavier still.

After Michaelmas the King set to work in earnest. He had been checked by
the northern risings, and still paused to see whether the embers had
been wholly quenched; and then when it was evident that the North was as
submissive as the South, began again his business of gathering in the
wealth that was waiting.

He started first in the North, under show of inflicting punishment for
the encouragement that the Religious had given to the late rebellions;
and one by one the great abbeys were tottering. Furness and Sawley had
already fallen, with Jervaulx and the other houses, and Holme Cultram
was placed under the care of a superior who could be trusted to hand
over his charge when called upon.

But up to the present not many great houses had actually fallen, except
those which were supposed to have taken a share in the revolt; and owing
to the pains taken by the Visitors to contradict the report that the
King intended to lay his hands on the whole monastic property of
England, it was even hoped by a few sanguine souls that the large
houses might yet survive.

There were hot discussions in the chapter at Lewes from time to time
during the year. The "Bishops' Book," issued by a committee of divines
and approved by the King, and containing a digest of the new Faith that
was being promulgated, arrived during the summer and was fiercely
debated; but so high ran the feeling that the Prior dropped the matter,
and the book was put away with other papers of the kind on an honourable
but little-used shelf.

The acrimony in domestic affairs began to reach its climax in October,
when the prospects of the Priory's own policy came up for discussion.

Some maintained that