tector is quit [acquitted] of all ill, Mistress; and
therefore the folk be thus glad."

"In very deed!" said Isoult, "and therefore am I right glad. But,
Gillian, are you certain thereof?"

"Nay," said she; "I do know no more than that all the folk say so much."

Two hours more passed before John came home.

"Well, Jack!" said Dr Thorpe, so soon as he heard his foot on the
threshold, "so my Lord of Somerset is quit of all charges?"

"Who told you so much?" inquired John.

"All the folk say so," answered Isoult.

"All the folk mistake, then," answered he, sadly. "He is quit of high
treason, but that only; and is cast for death [Note 6] of felony, and
remitted again unto the Tower."

"Cast for death!" cried Dr Thorpe and Isoult together.

Avery sat down with a weary air.

"I have been all this day in Westminster Hall," said he, "for I saw
there Mr Bertie, of my Lady of Suffolk's house, and he gat space for me
so soon as he saw me; and we stood together all the day to listen. My
Lord of Somerset pleaded his own cause like a gentleman and a Christian,
as he is: verily, I never heard man speak better."

"Well!" said Isoult, "then wherefore, thinkest, fared he ill?"

"Ah, dear heart!" replied he, "afore a jury of wolves, a lamb should be
convicted of the death of a lion."

"Who tried him?" asked Dr Thorpe.

"My Lord of Northumberland himself hath been on the Bench," said John,
"and it is of the act of compassing and procuring his death that my Lord
of Somerset is held guilty."

"Knave! scoundrel! murderer!" cried Dr Thorpe, in no softened tone.
"Jack, if I were that man's physician, I were sore tempted to give him a
dose that should end his days and this realm's troubles!"

"Good friend," said John, smiling sadly, "methinks his days shall be
over before the troubles of this realm."

"But is there an other such troubler in it?" asked he.

"Methinks I could name two," said John; "the Devil and Dr Stephen
Gardiner."

"Dr Gardiner is safe shut up," he answered.

"He may be out to-morrow," said John. "And if not so, the Devil is not
yet shut up, nor shall be till the angel be sent with the great chain to
bind him."

"Nay, Jack! the wise doctors say that was done under Constantine the
Emperor, and we have enjoyed the same ever sithence," answered he.

"Do they so?" replied John, somewhat drily. "We be enjoying it now,
trow?--But the thousand years be over, and he is let out again. And if
he were ev