house there to
Westminster and its lofty palaces. He recalled the locality of the
house he had entered, where Catesby and his friends were assembled
at some strange toil, and the terrified aspect these men all wore
when some unexpected sound had smitten upon their ears. He recalled
the sudden fierce grip of Catesby's hand upon his arm before he
recognized the face of the stranger within their midst. He
recollected the threats he had striven to speak binding him to the
silence he was so willing to promise.

What did it all mean? what could it mean? Lying in the dark, and
turning the matter over and over in his mind, Cuthbert began to
feel some fearful and sinister suspicions.

The month when all this had happened had been early in the year;
was it January, or early February? He could scarce remember, but he
knew it was one or the other. And had not his uncle said that
Parliament was to have met in February? Now that it was about to
meet soon again, had not Anthony spoken words implying that some
muster of friends was looked for in London; and had not Anthony and
his son always regarded him in the light of a friend and ally?

Cuthbert was by this time aware that he had but little love left
for the creed in which he had been reared. It seemed to him that
all, or at any rate far the greater part, of what was precious in
that creed was equally open to him in the Church established in the
land, together with the liberty to read the Scriptures for himself,
and to exercise his own freedom of conscience as no priest of the
Romish Church would ever let him exercise it. With him there had
been no wild revulsion of feeling, no sense of tearing and rending
away from one faith to join himself to another. His own convictions
had been of gradual growth, and he still felt and would always feel
a certain loving loyalty towards the Church of his childhood.
Still, he was increasingly convinced of the fact that it was not
within that fold that he himself could ever find true peace and
conviction of soul; and though no ardent theologian, and by no
means given over to controversy and dogmatism, he had reached a
steady conclusion as to his own faith, and one that was little
likely to be shaken.

At the same time he was kindly disposed to those of his countrymen
who were still beneath the Papal yoke, and were suffering for their
old allegiance. He honoured their constancy, and felt even a boyish
sense of shame in having, as it were, dese