g were within easy reach of his hand. Dolly
stood near the fire, her face rosy with the heat, and her pretty gown
hidden beneath a long apron. She glanced through the window into the
sunny yard, and then at a pile of dainty cakes she had just kneaded and
fashioned.

"Nay, Johnnie, I'll not come this morning. I promised our hostess to
bake her some confections after our forest fashion, and I cannot leave
so delicate a duty only half done. Go thou with Master Jeffreys, and
bring back two lusty appetites. I will bide at home, housewife
fashion, and prepare ye the wherewithal to satisfy the appetites when
ye have gotten them."

"Where is thy father?"

"With Mistress Stowe in her parlour. She is showing him some rare
things that her brother brought from the Spanish Main. He will have
eyes for nothing else this side of noon."

So Morgan joined Jeffreys, and the two went along Chepe westwards
towards St. Paul's. At the end of the great street stood the gate
known as the "Little Gate," and they went under the low archway into
the cathedral precincts. Inside, the place was as busy as Chepe
itself. Shops clustered under the wall, their gaudy signs swinging and
creaking in the September breeze, and 'prentices cried their masters'
wares and importuned passing folk to buy. The two men pushed their way
through the throng towards the northern transept of the great church,
and there found their path blocked again by a crowd that stood around
St. Paul's cross and pulpit, all ears for the words of a popular city
preacher. The cleric's discourse was more of a political oration than
a sermon. He thundered against "Rome" and the "Scarlet Woman," and
denounced the King of Spain as the veritable "child of the devil," and
he called upon all men to be up and doing something for the destruction
of the "monster." Master Jeffreys stopped to listen, and Morgan had
perforce to stay with him. The reverend orator dwelt in glowing terms
on the riches of the Indies, the rights of all Christians to a share
therein, and the greed of Spain in refusing other nations a proper
share. He played upon his audience as a skilled player upon a harp,
touching each string of emotion in turn, and then striking a chord to
which all strings would vibrate. For a moment he excited religious
emotion, then political fervour, then greed, love of glory and
adventure, then national pride and hatred of Spain, then all these
together by one cunning sentence