er parents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. This part of the story is all quite true, and I am not putting
into Rose's lips, in her conversation with Mr Tyrrel, one word which
she did not really utter.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

IN COLCHESTER CASTLE.

The whole population of Much Bentley seemed to have turned out to
witness the arrest at the Blue Bell. Some were kindly and sympathising,
some bitter and full of taunts; but the greater number were simply
inquisitive, neither friendly nor hostile, but gossipping. It was now
four o'clock, a time at which half the people were up in the village,
and many a woman rose an hour earlier than her wont, in order to see the
strange sight. There were the carpenters with baskets of tools slung
over their shoulders; the gardeners with rake or hoe; the labourers with
their spades; the fishermen with their nets.

The Colne oyster-fishery is the oldest of all known fisheries in
England, and its fame had reached imperial Rome itself, nearly two
thousand years ago, when the Emperor Caligula came over to England
partly for the purpose of tasting the Colchester oyster. The oysters
are taken in the Colne and placed in pits, where they are fattened till
they reach the size of a silver oyster preserved among the town
treasures. In April or May, when the baby oyster first appears in the
river, it looks like a drop from a tallow candle; but in twenty-four
hours the shell begins to form. The value of the oyster spawn (as the
baby oysters are called) in the river, is reckoned at twenty thousand
pounds; and from five to ten thousand pounds' worth of oysters is sold
every year.

"Well, Master Mount, how like you your new pair o' bracelets?" said one
of the fishermen, as William Mount was led out, and his hands tied with
a rough cord.

"Friend, I count it honour to bear for my Lord that which He first bare
for me," was the meek answer.

"Father Tye 'll never preach a better word than that," said a voice in
the crowd.

Mr Simnel looked up as if to see who spoke.

"Go on with thy work, old cage-maker!" cried another voice. "We'll not
find thee more gaol-birds to-day than what thou hast."

"You'd best hold your saucy tongues," said the nettled Bailiff.

"Nay, be not so tetchy, Master Simnel!" said another. The same person
never seemed to speak twice; a wise precaution, since the speaker was
less likely to be arrested if he did no