stayed all
night in the church-porch. Then, too, he heard the North-country singing
in the old way; all the mass music was sung in three parts, except the
unchanging melody of the creed, which, like the tremendous and unchanging
words themselves, at one time had united the whole of England; but what
stirred Anthony more than all were the ancient hymns sung here and there
during the service, some in Latin, which a few picked voices rendered,
and some in English, to the old lilting tunes which were as much the
growth of the north-country as the heather itself. The "Ave Verum Corpus"
was sung after the Elevation, and Anthony felt that his heart would break
for very joy; as he bent before the Body of his Lord, and the voices
behind him rose and exulted up the aisles, the women's and children's
voices soaring passionately up in the melody, the mellow men's voices
establishing, as it seemed, these ecstatic pinnacles of song on mighty
and immovable foundations.

Vespers were said at three o'clock, after baptisms and more confessions;
and Anthony was astonished at the number of folk who could answer the
priest. After vespers he made a short sermon, and told the people
something of what he had seen in the South, of the martyrdoms at Tyburn,
and of the constancy of the confessors.

"'Be thou faithful unto death,'" he said. "So our Saviour bids us, and He
gives us a promise too: 'I will give thee a crown of life.' Beloved, some
day the tide of heresy will creep up these valleys too; and it will bear
many things with it, the scaffold and the gallows and the knife maybe.
And then our Lord will see which are His; then will be the time that
grace will triumph--that those who have used the sacraments with
devotion; that have been careful and penitent with their sins, that have
hungered for the Bread of Life--the Lord shall stand by them and save
them, as He stood by Mr. Sherwin on the rack, and Father Campion on the
scaffold, and Mistress Ward and many more, of whom I have not had time to
tell you. He who bids us be faithful, Himself will be faithful; and He
who wore the crown of thorns will bestow upon us the crown of life."

Then they sang a hymn to our Lady:

"Hail be thou, Mary, the mother of Christ,"

and the old swaying tune rocked like a cradle, and the people looked up
towards their Mother's altar as they sang--their Mother who had ruled
them so sweetly and so long--and entreated her in their hearts, who stood
by her S