whom his mother
comforteth, so will I comfort you.'"

On the 17th of June, Isoult Avery wrote in her diary:--

"The church-bells are making music in mine ears as I sit to write. An
hour gone, Frances and Mr Monke went forth, no longer twain, but one.
God go with her, and bless her, this dear sister of mine heart, and
comfort her for all she hath lost--ay, as `one whom his mother
comforteth!'"

The ink was scarcely dry from this entry when Philippa Basset marched
in, with unrecognised step, for her shoes were new.

"Why, Mrs Philippa! your new shoes wrought that I knew not your step,"
said Isoult, with a smile.

"New shoes!" said she, "yea, in good sooth. I flung both mine old ones
after Frank; and had I had an hundred pairs in my cupboard, I had sent
them all flying."

The thought of a hundred pairs of shoes falling about, was too much for
Isoult's gravity.

"One of them smote the nag on his tail," continued Philippa; "I warrant
you it gave him a smart, for I sent it with all my might. 'Tis a good
omen that--saving only that it might cause the beast to be restive."

"Believe you in omens, Mrs Philippa?" answered Isoult.

"Not one half so much as I do believe in mine own good sense," said she.
"Yet I have known some strange things in my time. Well, what thinkest
thou of this match of Frank's?"

"I trust with all mine heart she may find it an happy and a
comfortable," was the reply.

"Ay, maybe a scrap of happiness shall not hurt her overmuch," said
Philippa in her dry way. "As to Mr Monke, I will wish him none, for
methought from his face he were as full as he could hold; and an' he had
some trouble, he demeriteth it, for having away Frank."

And so away she went, both laughing.

News that stirred _every_ Gospeller's heart reached Bradmond ere the
Christmas of 1547. The Bloody Statute was repealed; and in every parish
church, by royal order, a Bible and a copy of the Paraphrases of Erasmus
were set open, for all the people to read.

But the repeal of the Bloody Statute, ardently as she desired it, was
not without sad memories to Isoult Avery. The Act now abrogated had
brought death, four years before, to one very dear to her heart; and it
was not in human nature for her to hear of its destruction without a
sigh given to the memory of Grace Rayleigh. In the churchyard at Bodmin
were two nameless graves--of a husband and wife whom that Bloody Statute
had parted, and who had only met at last in its