men in authority; and though a
Dean's stall be fenced from the episcopal crook, yet there is a rod at
Rome which can reach even thither."

"I tell thee, dear Erasmus, thou art too timid; I were well content to
leave house and goods, yea, to go to prison or to death, could I but
bring home to one soul, for which Christ died, the truth and hope in
every one of those prayers and creeds that our poor folk are taught to
patter as a senseless charm."

"These are strange times," returned Erasmus. "Methinks yonder phantom,
be he skeleton or angel, will have snatched both of us away ere we
behold the full issue either of thy preachings, or my Greek Testament,
or of our More's Utopian images. Dost thou not feel as though we were
like children who have set some mighty engine in motion, like the great
water-wheels in my native home, which, whirled by the flowing streams of
time and opinion, may break up the whole foundations, and destroy the
oneness of the edifice?"

"It may be so," returned Colet. "What read we? `The net brake' even in
the Master's sight, while still afloat on the sea. It was only on the
shore that the hundred and fifty-three, all good and sound, were drawn
to His feet."

"And," returned Erasmus, "I see wherefore thou hast made thy children at
Saint Paul's one hundred and fifty and three."

The two friends were passing out. Their latter speeches had scarce been
understood by Ambrose, even if he heard them, so full was he of
conflicting feelings, now ready to cast himself before their feet, and
entreat the Dean to help him to guidance, now withheld by bashfulness,
unwillingness to interrupt, and ingenuous shame at appearing like an
eavesdropper towards such dignified and venerable personages. Had he
obeyed his first impulse, mayhap his career had been made safer and
easier for him, but it was while shyness chained his limbs and tongue
that the Dean and Erasmus quitted the chapel, and the opportunity of
accosting them had slipped away.

Their half comprehended words had however decided him in the part he
should take, making him sure that Colet was not controverting the
formularies of the Church, but drawing out those meanings which in
repetition by rote were well-nigh forgotten. It was as if his course
were made clear to him.

He was determined to take the means which most readily presented
themselves of hearing Colet; and leaving the chapel, he bent his steps
to the Row which his book-loving eye h