If you please, my lady," he said, as if repeating a lesson, "a Bull of
the Holy Father has been found nailed to the door of the Bishop of
London's palace, deposing Elizabeth and releasing all her subjects from
their allegiance."

Lady Maxwell went to her husband and took him by the arm gently.

"What does it mean, sweetheart?" she asked.

"It means that Catholics must choose between their sovereign and their
God."

"God have mercy," said a servant behind.

CHAPTER VI

MR. STEWART

Sir Nicholas' exclamatory sentence was no exaggeration. That terrible
choice of which he spoke, with his old eyes shining with the desire to
make it, did not indeed come so immediately as he anticipated; but it
came none the less. From every point of view the Bull was unfortunate,
though it may have been a necessity; for it marked the declaration of war
between England and the Catholic Church. A gentle appeal had been tried
before; Elizabeth, who, it must be remembered had been crowned during
mass with Catholic ceremonial, and had received the Blessed Sacrament,
had been entreated by the Pope as his "dear daughter in Christ" to return
to the Fold; and now there seemed to him no possibility left but this
ultimatum.

It is indeed difficult to see what else, from his point of view, he could
have done. To continue to pretend that Elizabeth was his "dear daughter"
would have discredited his fatherly authority in the eyes of the whole
Christian world. He had patiently made an advance towards his wayward
child; and she had repudiated and scorned him. Nothing was left but to
recognise and treat her as an enemy of the Faith, an usurper of spiritual
prerogatives, and an apostate spoiler of churches; to do this might
certainly bring trouble upon others of his less distinguished but more
obedient children, who were in her power; but to pretend that the
suffering thus brought down upon Catholics was unnecessary, and that the
Pope alone was responsible for their persecution, is to be blind to the
fact that Elizabeth had already openly defied and repudiated his
authority, and had begun to do her utmost to coax and compel his children
to be disobedient to their father.

The shock of the Bull to Elizabeth was considerable; she had not expected
this extreme measure; and it was commonly reported too that France and
Spain were likely now to unite on a religious basis against England; and
t