the serpent, which cannot advance to its object without twisting its
body into contortions."

"And can anything be more graceful than its lovely curves? Doth not
Scripture in some manner commend the sagacious reptile, holding him up
to us as an example, and bidding us be wise even as serpents? The
children of Israel, moreover, when in the wilderness, were cured of
their wounds by merely looking at the brazen serpent, thereby
typifying the value of wisdom, whereof the snake is an emblem."

"You are more skilled in dialectic than I," said Arundel, laughing,
"and were I to hear you with shut eyes, I should think a monk's cowl
would fit your head better than a morion."

Sir Christopher stole a sharp, quick glance at his companion at these
words, but he could notice nothing in the youth's handsome features
save the light-heartedness of a happy spirit. He seemed to think it
necessary, however, to explain more perfectly the meaning of what he
had been saying.

"Harbor not the thought," he continued, "that I, in any wise, approve
the damnable doctrines which, by many zealous Protestants, are
ascribed to the Catholic Church, viz: that religion consists in the
mumbling of unmeaning forms and performance of unnecessary ceremonies;
in the gaudy decoration of temples with pictures and statues, which
some consider an incitement to devotion; in an entire abandonment of
the soul of the layman to the care of the priest, as if the laic
himself had no part in working out his salvation. As a good
Protestant, I am bound to condemn and anathematize these errors; but,
more distinctly, I hold that our Puritan brethren (to come back to the
point of departure) are over-strict and unwise in applying a
Procrustean measure in their discipline, and, for that reason, if for
no other, they cannot be a Church universal. Too stiff, unbending and
unforgiving are they to the weaknesses of human nature, and,
therefore, (without more,) I predict utter failure to every attempt of
theirs to make the natives like themselves. They do forget that milk,
not flesh meat, is the food for babes."

"Hold you these Puritans to be, in any true sense, a Church at all?"
inquired Arundel.

Again the Knight looked sharply at the other, and this time he burst
into a laugh, wherein, it seemed to the young man, a sneer was mingled
with the gaiety.

"That were a dangerous question," he answered, "anywhere else than
three days' journey from Winthrop, and to ears less fo