land in spite of all repressive
measures, and King Edward the Fourth, either from policy or
indifference, had done little or nothing to check its spread.
London--the place of all others which was ever loyal to him--was a
perfect hotbed of heresy (in the language of the priests), and that
alone was enough to deter the Yorkist monarch from stirring up
strife and bringing down upon his head the enmity of the powerful
city which served him so well. Now that the meek Henry wore the
crown again--if indeed he did wear it--the Lollards might well
tremble for their liberties and lives.

As for Paul, he had seen and heard little of the new religion, as
he called it, and looked upon it as a terrible and deadly sin. At
the same time, he had knocked about the world enough to have won a
larger toleration for all sorts and conditions of men than he would
have done had he remained master of the ancestral estates at home;
and after a momentary thrill of dismay and repulsion, he decided to
take no notice of what he had inadvertently overheard.

These people had been kind and friendly. If they desired him to
remain a short time beneath their roof until his wounds were
healed, he saw no particular reason against doing so. A spell of
rest and quiet would suit him and Sultan very well, and with their
private beliefs he had no concern; the less he knew of them the
better.

So he finished his toilet, whistling a gay tune to drown the sound
of the unauthorized prayer nigh at hand; and when he had finished
he opened his door, and made his way down the narrow, winding
stairs, into the great kitchen he had entered the previous evening.

The big place looked cheerful enough this bright morning: the door
standing wide open to the October sunlight--the huge fire of logs
crackling and blazing on the wide hearth and roaring up the vast
open chimney--the rude metal and wooden utensils as clean as
scrubbing could make them--and the brick floor clean enough to eat
off, as the saying goes. And this cleanliness was not so common in
those days of partial civilization as it is now: there were
farmhouses enough and to spare in the England of that day where men
and animals herded together amid filth that we should hardly
condemn pigs to in this enlightened age. Wherefore Paul was both
pleased and surprised by all he saw, and his dim misgivings fled
away promptly.

In the wide inglenook before the oak settle a small table had been
drawn up, and upon thi