whether it be for you or against you, tell the truth."

"I'm not to mind a bit about my religion then?"

"Does your religion bid you tell a lie?" asked the Captain.

"I'm not telling a lie, I am just holding my tongue. A Catholic has a
right to hold his tongue when he is among Protestants."

"Even to the ruin of his father," suggested the Captain.

"I don't want to ruin papa. He said he was going to turn--to turn me
out of the house. I would go and drown myself in the lake if he did,
or in one of those big dykes which divide the meadows. I am miserable
among them--quite miserable. Edith never gives me any peace, day
or night. She comes and sits in my bedroom, begging me to tell the
truth. It ought to be enough when I say that I will hold my tongue.
Papa can turn me out to drown myself if he pleases. Edith goes on
cheating the words out of me till I don't know what I'm saying. If
I am to be brought up to tell it all before the judge I shan't know
what I have said before, or what I have not said."

"_Nil conscire tibi_," said the father, who had already taught his
son so much Latin as that.

"But you did see the sluice gates torn down, and thrown back into the
water?" said the Captain. Here Florian shook his head mournfully. "I
understood you to acknowledge that you had seen the gates destroyed."

"I never said as much to you," said the boy.

"But you did to me," said Edith.

"If a fellow says a word to you, it is repeated to all the world.
I never would have you joined with me in a secret. You are a great
deal worse than--, well, those fellows that you abuse me about. They
never tell anything that they have heard among themselves, to people
outside."

"Pat Carroll, you mean?" asked the Captain.

"He isn't the only one. There's more in it than him."

"Oh yes; we know that. There were many others in it besides Pat
Carroll, when they let the waters in through the dyke gates. There
must have been twenty there."

"No, there weren't--not that I saw."

"A dozen, perhaps?"

"You are laying traps for me, but I am not going to be caught. I
was there, and I did see it. You may make the most of that. Though
you have me up before the judge, I needn't say a word more than I
please."

"He is more obstinate," said his father, "than any rebel that you can
meet."

"But so mistaken," said the Captain, "because he can refuse to answer
us who are treating him with such tenderness and affection, who did
not even want t