unt Marjory, I think he was a grand fellow! I would have
kissed him if I had been there."

As the kiss was at that time the common form of greeting between men and
women, for a lady to offer a kiss to a man as a token that she approved
his words or actions, was not then considered more demonstrative than it
would be to shake hands now. It was, in fact, not an unusual
occurrence.

"And my fair father told us," pursued Margaret, "when he heard what the
smith said, he could not help thinking of those words of our Lord, when
He thanked God that His mission had been hidden from the wise, but
revealed to the ignorant. `For,' our Lord said, `to Thee, my God, do I
commit my cause; for mine enemies have risen against me.'" [Note 2.]

"And they took him to the Tower of London?"

"Yes, but the Bishop of London was very angry at the violation of
sanctuary, and insisted that my fair father should be sent back. He
threatened the King with excommunication, and of course that frightened
him. He sent him back to the church whence he was taken, but commanded
the Sheriff of Essex to surround the church, so that he should neither
escape nor obtain food. But my fair father's true friend, my good old
Lord of Dublin--(you were right, Aunt Marjory; all priests are not
alike)--interposed, and begged the Lord King to do to him what he had
thought to do to my Lord and father. The Lord King then offered the
choice of three things:--my Lord and father must either abjure the
kingdom for ever, or he must be perpetually imprisoned, or he must
openly confess himself a traitor."

"A fair choice, surely!"

"Horrid, wasn't it?"

"He chose banishment, did he not?"

"He said, if the King willed it, he was content to go out of England for
a time,--not for ever: but a traitor he would never confess himself, for
he had never been one."

"The words of a true man!" said Marjory.

"Splendid!--and then (Eva!--is that pedlar never coming up?) the Lord
King found out that my fair father had laid up treasure in the Temple,
and he actually accused him of taking it fraudulently from the royal
treasury, and summoned him to resign it. My fair father replied (I
shouldn't have done!) that he and all he had were at the King's
pleasure, and sent an order to the Master of the Temple accordingly.
Then--O Aunt Marjory, it is too long a tale to tell!--and I want that
pedlar. But I do think it was a shame, after all that, for the Lord
King to profess to com