r's arm and gripped it with
a kind of feeble strength; then dropped again on to the coverlet.

Chris hesitated a moment, and again glanced up; and as he did so, there
was a sound on the stairs. He threw himself back on his heels and looked
round, as the doctor came in with Morris behind him.

He was a stout ruddy man, and moved heavily across the floor; but Ralph
seemed not to hear it.

The doctor came to the end of the bed, and stood staring down at the
dying man's face, frowning and pursing his lips; Chris watched him
intently for some sign. Then he came round by Beatrice, leaned over the
bed, and took Ralph's wrist softly into his fingers. He suddenly seemed
to remember himself, and turned his face abruptly over his shoulder to
Sir James.

"There is a man come from the palace," he whispered harshly. "I suppose
it is the pardon." And Chris saw him arch his eyebrows and purse his
lips again. Then he bent over Ralph once more.

Then again the doctor jerked his head towards the window behind and
spoke across to Chris.

"They have him out there," he said; "Master Cromwell, I mean."

Then he rose abruptly.

"He cannot receive Viaticum; and he will not be able to make his
confession. I should shrive him at once, sir, and anoint him."

"At once?" whispered Chris.

"The sooner the better," said the doctor; "there is no telling."

Chris rose swiftly from his knees, and made a sharp sign to Morris. Then
he sank down once more, looking round, and lifted the purple stole from
the floor where he had laid it the evening before; and even as he did so
his soul revolted.

He looked up at Beatrice. Would not she understand the unchivalry of the
act? But the will in her eyes compelled him.--Yes, yes! Who could set a
limit to mercy?

He slipped the strip over his shoulders, and again bent down over his
brother, with one arm across the motionless body. Beatrice and Sir James
were on their knees by now. Nicholas was busy with Morris at the further
end of the room. The doctor was gone.

There was a profound silence now outside as the priest bent lower and
lower till his lips almost touched the ear of the dying man; and every
word of the broken abrupt sentences was audible to all in the room.

"Ralph--Ralph--dear brother. You are at the point of death. I must
shrive you. You have sinned very deeply against God and man. I shall
anoint you afterwards. Make an act of sorrow in your heart for all your
sins; it will stand for c