y in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh.' Do to us what ye will. `Whether we
live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Living or dying, we are the Lord's.'"

"We solemnly adjudge you false heretics," was the stern reply, "and
deliver you up to our Catholic Prince for punishment. Depart in peace!"

Gerhardt looked up. "`My peace I give unto you; not as the world
giveth, give I unto you!' Be it so. We go in peace; we go to peace.
Our suffering will soon be over. Already we behold Jesus our Lord at
the right hand of God, and we are ready to partake of His sufferings,
that we may reign with Him."

King Henry now rose to pronounce sentence. The condemned criminals
before him were to be branded on the forehead with a mark of ignominy,
to be scourged, and cast forth out of the city. No man might receive
them under his roof, relieve them with food, nor administer to them
consolation of any sort. And this was the sentence of the King and of
holy Church, to the honour and laud of God, and of Mary, His most
glorious Mother!

The sentence was carried out even more barbarously than it was
pronounced. The foreheads of all were branded with hot irons, they were
whipped through the city, and their clothes having been cut short to the
girdle [John twenty 21-23], they were turned into the snow-covered
fields. One of the men appointed to use the branding-irons had just
lost a daughter, and moved by a momentary impulse of pity (for which he
afterwards blamed himself and did penance), he passed two or three of
the younger women--Ermine among them--with a lighter brand than the
rest. No such mercy was shown to the men or the elder women, nor would
it have been to Ermine, had it not been the case that her extreme
fairness made her look much younger than she really was.

Gerhardt, being regarded as the ringleader, was also branded on the
chin.

"Courage, my children!" he said to the shivering, trembling little
company, as they were marched down High Street. "We are counted
worthy--worthy to suffer shame for Him who suffered dire shame for us.
Let us praise God."

And to the amazement, alike of the officials and the crowd of
spectators, the song was set up, and echoed into the side
streets--"Blessed are ye, when men shall persecute you, for the Son of
Man's sake!" varied every now and then by a joyous chorus of "Glory to
God in the highest! on earth peace, goodwill towards men!"