By What Authority?

advice and exhortation; and in the morning, after an almost broken-hearted good-bye from Isabel, he rode out with his servant following on another horse and leading a packhorse on the saddle of whic

rself on his bed, and sobbed her heart out. They had never been long separated before. For the last three years he had gone over to the Rectory morning by morning to be instructed by Mr. Dent

ther read, even though with fervour and sincerity, long extracts from "Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations," collected by the Reverend Henry Bull, when the real world, as Anthony knew it, laughed and rippled and twinkled outside in the humming summer air of the

hould prevail. They were not interested in his horse, and Anthony never felt quite the same again towards one good minister who in a moment of severity called Eliza, the glorious peregrine that sat on the boy's wrist and shook her bells, a "vanity." And so Anth

ther; and she loved and lived in Anthony from the very difference between them. She frankly could not understand the attraction of sport, and the things that pleased her brother; she was afraid of the hawks, and liked to stroke a horse and kiss his soft nose better than to ride him. But, after all, Anthony liked to watch the towering bird, and to hear and indee

nsing of the village temple. They had stood together at the west end of the church a little timid at the sight of that noisy crowd in the quiet house of prayer; but she had felt no disapproval at that fierce vindication of truth. Her father had taught her of course that the purest worship was that which was only spiritual; and while since childhood she had seen Sunday by Sunday the Great Rood overhead, she had never paid it any but artistic attention. The men had the ropes round it now, and it was sw

dward's time in spite of difficulties; had thanked God and the Court of Heaven with a full heart for the accession of Mary; had prayed and deprecated the divine wrath at the return of the Protestant religion with Elizabeth; but yet had somehow managed to keep the old faith alight for eight years more, sometimes evading, sometimes resisting, and sometimes conforming to the march of events, in hopes of better days. But now the blow had fallen, and the old man, too ill-instructed to hear the accents of new truth in the shouting of that noisy crowd and the crash of his images, was o

lace, and preached a stirring sermon on the life and times of Josiah; and Isabel had thanked God on her knees

the lanes about, and certain spots in the garden, were sacred and fragrant to her because her Lord had met her there. It was indeed a trouble to her sometimes that she loved Anthony so much; and to her mind it was a less worthy kind of love altogether; it was kindled and quickened by such little external details, by the sight of his boyish hand brown with the sun, and scarred by small sporting accidents, such as the stroke of his bird's beak or talons, or by the very outline of the pillow where his curly head had rested only an hour or two ago. Whereas her love for Christ was a deep and solemn passion that seeme

ith her imagination along the lane that led to the London road, and the

"come down. Huber

shed her face and came downstairs. There was a tall, pleasant-faced lad of about her own age st

he said, "and heard that Anthony was going

that Anthony

ood-bye; but I came by the orcha

at Hubert had heard of a rising on behalf of Mary: but Hubert was shy and constrained, and Isabel was still

you to come up this evening, if you have time. Fat

mised she

bert, "before the Commission, but we

ss Isabel's face. "I

pensive matter to refuse to attend church, and Sir Nicholas probably paid not less

, and then drawing on her hood, walked across in the dusk to the Hall. H

wing to the south of the house: the bell turret over the inner hall and the crowded roofs stood up against the st

s or halberds here and there. A fire had been lighted in the great hearth as the evenings were chilly; and Sir Nicholas was standing before it, still in his riding-dress, pouring out resentment and fury to his wife, who sat in a tall chair at her embroidery. She turned silently and held out a hand to Isabel, who came and stood beside her, while Hubert went and sat dow

er changed his faith, while every heretic went free? And then to that some stripling of a clerk told me that a religion that was good enough for the Queen's Grace should be good enough for her loyal subjects too; but my Lord silenced him quickly. And then I went at them aga

rt," said Lady Maxwel

uivant and all; and in the mid of them that priest who was with us last July.-Well, well, we'll leave his name alone-him that said he was a priest before them all in September; and

Lady Maxwell tranquilly, "the priest

s think, but we showed them that Catholics were not asha

," said my lady, "and Isabel, too

as paid no

at into the fire-"Topcliffe. There he was, bowing to my Lord and the Commissioners. When I think of that man," he said, "when I think of that man-" and Sir Nicholas' kindly ol

wn her embroider

his cap and whip. "Now sit down and ha

ying a word or two of apology to Isabel, left

s not know who Topcl

ther, "your father does not

could be set up again at a few hours' notice: and that the chalices had not been melted down into communion cups according to the orders issued, and so on. And that at West Grinsted, moreover, the Blessed Sacrament was there still-praise God-yes, and was going to remain there. He spoke freely before Isabel, and yet he remembered his courtesy too, and did not abuse the new-fangled religion, as he thought it, in her pre

rsistent at Chichester that the Duke of Norfolk had been imprisoned by the Queen's orders, and was to be charged with treason; and that he was at present at Burnham, in Mr. Wentworth's house, under the guard of Sir Hen

sang sometimes in a sweet tremulous old voice, while Sir Nicholas nodded at the fire. Isabel, too, had had some lessons here from the old lady; but even this mild vanity troubled her puritan conscience a little sometimes. Then the room, too, had curious and attractive things in it. A high niche in the oak over the fireplace held

before the fire, and closed his eyes, for he was old, and tired with his long ride; and Hubert sat down in a dark corner near him whence he could watch Isabel. After a few rippling chords my lady began to sing a song by Sir Thomas Wyatt, whom she an

! for I h

not she

shall b

th can no

then for

r comes

of his singing, and lost his head for it; her voice shook once or twice: and old Sir Nicholas

nd of Alderman Marrett, and his house off Cheapside, where Anthony would lie that night; and of such small and tranquil topics, and left fierce

ubert, as they turned the corner of the house together. "Why canno

in the darkn

er," he said. "But then, Mistress Isabel," he went on, "I am

said, "so long a

Hubert, and then stopp

" she

g," sai

ubert still stood, with his hand on the door, and watched the white figure fade into the dusk, and listened to the faint rustle of her s

sh the sentence he was writing, and she stood watching the quill move and pause and move again over the paper, in the candlelight, until he laid the pen down, and rose and stood with his back to the fire, smiling down at her. He was a tall, slender m

down at her with his kindly grey eyes

good evening,

ded br

child?"

he said, smil

Sir Nicho

had been fined again for his recusancy; and how Lad

one else the

ather,

Hubert come h

te, father. I would no

dily down into her eyes for a moment, and then

emember he is a Papist, born and bred; a

shing; and as he turned again

nder, I know," he added. "I

and laid his hand on her head, and

ithful to the end." And then he looked into her eyes again, s

m. Changes of religion were so frequent in those days that difficulties, when they did arise, easily adjusted themselves. It was considered, for example, by politicians quite possible at one time that the Duke of Anjou should conform to the Church of England for the sake of marryin

either that she was indifferent to vital religion, or that she was married to a man whose creed she was bound to abhor and anathematise: and however willing Mr. Norris might be to meet Papists on terms of social friendline

n if the insuperable barrier of religion were surmounted. Mr. Norris liked a man to be consistent and zealous for his creed, even if that creed were dark and superstitious-and this

said, "that every penny he pays in fines g

ngue unless he could speak respectfully of one to whom he owed nothing but love and honour. This had ha

for I

hen her father had called up to her that Hubert was come, it was not so hard to dry her tears for Anthony's departure. The clouds had parted a little when she came and found this tall lad smiling shyly at her in the hall. As she had sat in the

ed Hubert herself, until her father had named him; and in fact it is probably safe to say that during Hubert's visit to the north, which had lasted three or four month

o bitterly this morning, and now she sat wide-eyed, and self-questioning as to whether her heavenly love were as lucid and single as it had been; and when at last she went down on her knees she entreated the King of Love to bless not only her father, and her brother Anthon