en come and tell me?"

Will, occupied in rubbing his eyes with his small sleeve, nodded assent.
Agnes filled her pails mechanically, and carried them home. The world
must go on, if the sun would never rise any more for her.

Early the next morning Will brought her news that the six prisoners, of
whom John Laurence was one, had been taken to the Counter, and that on
the eighth of February they were to appear before Bishop Gardiner at
Winchester Palace, Southwark. Knowing that Mistress Winter would soon
hear of the arrest, if she had not already done so, Agnes made no
attempt to conceal the news. She told it herself, and requested
permission to go and hear the examination.

"What, on a brewing-day!" cried Mistress Winter. "Good sooth, nay!
They be right sure to be put by to another day. If that be not brewing,
nor baking, nor cleaning, nor washing-day, may be thou canst be let go
for an half-hour then."

"Prithee, Mistress Sacramentary, don thy velvet gown!" spitefully added
Dorothy.

The hall of the Bishop's Palace was crowded that morning. The six
prisoners were led out in order, according to their social rank:--first,
William Hunter, the apprentice-boy of Brentford, only sixteen years of
age; then Thomas Tomkins, the weaver; Stephen Knight, the barber of
Maldon; William Pygot, the butcher of Braintree; John Laurence, the
Black Friar; lastly, Thomas Hawkes, the only one in the group who wrote
himself "gentleman." They were such common, contemptible people, that
Gardiner thought them beneath his august notice, and scornfully referred
them to Bonner's jurisdiction. They were marched at once to the
Consistory sitting in Saint Paul's Chapter-House, whither the crowd
followed.

The Consistory demanded of the accused persons--

"Do ye believe that the body of Christ is in the Sacrament, without any
substance of bread and wine remaining?"

The prisoners replied that this doctrine was not agreeable to Scripture.

"Do ye believe that your parents, your sponsors, the King, Queen,
nobility, clergy, and laity of the realm, believing this doctrine, were
true and faithful Christians, or no?"

"If they so believed," was the answer, "they were therein deceived."

"Did ye, yourselves, in time past, truly believe the same, or no?"

They said, "Ay, heretofore; but not now."

"Do ye believe that the Spirit of Christ has been, is, and will be, with
the Church, not suffering her to be deceived?"

"We do so believe,"