"Ay, ay. Dost not see, mine honest Humfrey, that's the very point that
fits him for our purpose?"

"You mean that he is a double traitor and informer."

"We do not use such hard words in the Privy Council Board as you do on
deck, my good friend," said Cavendish. "We have our secret
intelligencers, you see, all in the Queen's service. Foul and dirty
work, but you can't dig out a fox without soiling of fingers, and if
there be those that take kindly to the work, why, e'en let them do it."

"Then there is a plot?"

"Content you, Humfrey! You'll hear enough of it anon. A most foul,
bloody, and horrible plot, quite enough to hang every soul that has
meddled in it, and yet safe to do no harm--like poor Hal's blunderbuss,
which would never go off, except when it burst, and blew him to pieces."

Will felt that he had said quite enough to impress Humfrey with a sense
of his statecraft and importance, and was not sorry for an interruption
before he should have said anything dangerous. It was from Frank
Pierrepoint, who had been Diccon's schoolmate, and was enchanted to see
him. Humfrey was to stay one day longer in town in case Walsingham
should wish to see him, and to show Diccon something of London, which
they had missed on their way to Plymouth.

St. Paul's Cathedral was even then the sight that all Englishmen were
expected to have seen, and the brothers took their way thither,
accompanied by Frank Pierrepoint, who took their guidance on his hands.
Had the lads seen the place at the opening of the century they would
have thought it a piteous spectacle, for desecration and sacrilege had
rioted there unchecked, the magnificent peal of bells had been gambled
away at a single throw of the dice, the library had been utterly
destroyed, the magnificent plate melted up, and what covetous
fanaticism had spared had been further ravaged by a terrible fire. At
this time Bishop Bancroft had done his utmost towards reparation, and
the old spire had been replaced by a wooden one; but there was much of
ruin and decay visible all around, where stood the famous octagon
building called Paul's Cross, where outdoor sermons were preached to
listeners of all ranks. This was of wood, and was kept in moderately
good repair. Beyond, the nave of the Cathedral stretched its length,
the greatest in England. Two sets of doors immediately opposite to one
another on the north and south sides had rendered it a thoroughfare in
very early t