ust be owned--but such as was not to
be destroyed by Roman Pontiff or Spanish King.

CHAPTER THREE.

NEWS FROM ENGLAND.

For several days the young Ernst did not recover from the effects of the
dreadful scene he had witnessed. No smile ever beamed on his
countenance, his cheeks were pale, his eyes dim. His kind protectors
began to fear that he had received a blow which might cast a gloom over
his life, if it did not quickly shorten it. Even Sir John De Leigh, the
philosopher, the man of the world, who declared that no circumstances of
life, no human suffering, should produce any effect on the mind of a man
of sense, compassionated the orphan boy. He even condescended to call
the child to him, to tell him of the scenes he had witnessed in foreign
lands--how he had seen the Grand Bashaw and the Great Mogul,--the
splendour of their palaces, and the obedience of their subjects; how he
himself had ridden under a silken canopy on the back of a huge elephant,
and traversed the burning desert, placed between the humps of a swift
dromedary. By degrees he won back the boy to take an interest in what
was going on around him, though often little Ernst would start, and
burst forth again into bitter tears.

The boy and his young companion were, for a large portion of each day,
with the Lady Anne, who took a pleasure in instructing him. Already he
could read without difficulty, and she now placed paper and pen in his
hand, and instructed him in the art of writing, an art very soon to
stand him in good stead, and to enable him to serve his generous patron,
Master Gresham.

Of that kind patron some account ought now to be given.

Master Thomas Gresham came, so Ernst believed, of a line of honourable
merchants. Sir Richard Gresham, his father, of whom he was the youngest
son, died some three years before this, having been some time Lord Mayor
of London. Sir Richard had a brother, Sir John Gresham, who was
employed as Royal agent to King Henry the Eighth in Flanders, a post to
which the patron of Ernst Verner afterwards succeeded. Sir Richard's
eldest son was named after his uncle, and became Sir John Gresham. Sir
Richard had two daughters, the eldest of whom married the wealthy Sir
John Thynne, of Longleat, in Wiltshire.

Although it was not customary for merchants to send their sons to
college, so much talent was exhibited by Thomas Gresham, that his father
determined to give him the advantage of a University educa