the
Presence Chamber, a buzz of talk and footsteps broke out in the court
below; and a moment later the Archbishop's body-servant ran in to say
that his Grace wished to see Mr. Norris at once in the gallery that
opened out of the guard-room.

"And I think it is about the Jesuits, sir," added the man, evidently
excited.

Anthony ran down at once and found his master pacing up and down, with a
courier waiting near the steps at the lower end that led to Chichele's
tower. The Archbishop stopped by a window, emblazoned with Cardinal
Pole's emblem, and beckoned to him.

"See here, Master Norris," he said, "I have received news that Campion is
at last taken: it may well be false, as so often before; but take horse,
if you please, and ride into the city and find the truth for me. I will
not send a groom; they believe the maddest tales. You are at liberty?" he
added courteously.

"Yes, your Grace, I will ride immediately."

As he rode down the river-bank towards London Bridge ten minutes later,
he could not help feeling some dismay as well as excitement at the news
he was to verify. And yet what other end was possible? But what a doom
for the brilliant Oxford orator, even though he had counted the cost!

Streams of excited people were pouring across the bridge into the city;
Campion's name was on every tongue; and Anthony, as he passed under the
high gate, noticed a man point up at the grim spiked heads above it, and
laugh to his companion. There seemed little doubt, from the unanimity of
those whom he questioned, that the rumour was true; and some even said
that the Jesuit was actually passing down Cheapside on his way to the
Tower. When at last Anthony came to the thoroughfare the crowd was as
dense as for a royal progress. He checked his horse at the door of an
inn-yard, and asked an ostler that stood there what it was all about.

"It is Campion, the Jesuit, sir," said the man. "He has been taken at
Lyford, and is passing here presently."

The man had hardly finished speaking when a yell came from the end of the
street, and groans and hoots ran down the crowd. Anthony turned in his
saddle, and saw a great stir and movement, and then horses' and men's
heads moving slowly down over the seething surface of the crowd, as if
swimming in a rough sea. He could make little out, as the company came
towards him, but the faces of the officers and pursuivants who rode in
the front rank, four or five abreast; then followed the f