by being accosted in good English by one of the imperial men-at-arms,
who were guarding his Holiness in actual though unconfessed captivity.
This person had sent his commendations to Ambrose, and likewise a
laborious bit of writing, which looked as if he were fast forgetting the
art. It bade Ambrose inform his mother and all his friends and kin that
he was well and coming to preferment, and inclosed for Aldonza a small
mother-of-pearl cross blessed by the Pope. Giles added that he should
bring her finer gifts by and by.

Seven years' constancy! It gave quite a respectability to Giles's love,
and Aldonza was still ready and patient while waiting in attendance on
her beloved mistress.

Ambrose lived on in the colony at Chelsea, sometimes attending his
master, especially on diplomatic missions, and generally acting as
librarian and foreign secretary, and obtaining some notice from Erasmus
on the great scholar's visit to Chelsea. Under such guidance, Ambrose's
opinions had settled down a good deal; and he was a disappointment to
Tibble, whose views advanced proportionably as he worked less, and read
and thought more. He so bitterly resented and deplored the burning of
Tindal's Bible that there was constant fear that he might bring on
himself the same fate, especially as he treasured his own copy and
studied it constantly. The reform that Wolsey had intended to effect
when he obtained the legatine authority seemed to fall into the
background among political interests, and his efforts had as yet no
result save the suppression of some useless and ill-managed small
religious houses to endow his magnificent project of York College at
Oxford, with a feeder at Ipswich, his native town.

He was waiting to obtain the papacy, when he would deal better with the
abuses. Randall once asked him if he were not waiting to be King of
Heaven, when he could make root and branch work at once. Hal had never
so nearly incurred a flogging!

And in the meantime another influence was at work, an influence only
heard of at first in whispered jests, which made loyal-hearted Dennet
blush and look indignant, but which soon grew to sad earnest, as she
could not but avow, when she beheld the stately pomp of the two
Cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio, sweep up to the Blackfriars Convent to
sit in judgment on the marriage of poor Queen Katharine.

"Out on them!" she said. "So many learned men to set their wits against
one poor woman!" And she h