"And my fair father told us," pursued Margaret, "when he heard what the smith said, he could not help thinking of those words of our Lord, when He thanked God that His mission had been hidden from the wise, but revealed to the ignorant. `For,' our Lord said, `to Thee, my God, do I commit my cause; for mine enemies have risen against me.'" [Note 2.] "And they took him to the Tower of London?" "Yes, but the Bishop of London was very angry at the violation of sanctuary, and insisted that my fair father should be sent back. He threatened the King with excommunication, and of course that frightened him. He sent him back to the church whence he was taken, but commanded the Sheriff of Essex to surround the church, so that he should neither escape nor obtain food. But my fair father's true friend, my good old Lord of Dublin--(you were right, Aunt Marjory; all priests are not alike)--interposed, and begged the Lord King to do to him what he had thought to do to my Lord and father. The Lord King then offered the choice of three things:--my Lord and father must either abjure the kingdom for ever, or he must be perpetually imprisoned, or he must openly confess himself a traitor." "A fair choice, surely!" "Horrid, wasn't it?" "He chose banishment, did he not?" "He said, if the King willed it, he was content to go out of England for a time,--not for ever: but a traitor he would never confess himself, for he had never been one." "The words of a true man!" said Marjory. "Splendid!--and then (Eva!--is that pedlar never coming up?) the Lord King found out that my fair father had laid up treasure in the Temple, and he actually accused him of taking it fraudulently from the royal treasury, and summoned him to resign it. My fair father replied (I shouldn't have done!) that he and all he had were at the King's pleasure, and sent an order to the Master of the Temple accordingly. Then--O Aunt Marjory, it is too long a tale to tell!--and I want that pedlar. But I do think it was a shame, after all that, for the Lord King to profess to compassionate my Lord and father, and to say that he had been faithful to our Lord King John of happy memory, [Note 3] and also to our Lord King Richard (whom God pardon!); therefore, notwithstanding the ill-usage of himself, and the harm he had done the kingdom, he would rather pardon my fair father than execute him. `For,' he said, `I would rather be accounted a remiss king than a man of blood.'" "Well, that does not sound bad, Magot." "Oh no! Words are very nice things, Aunt Marjory. And our Lord King Henry can string them very prettily together. I have no patience--I say, Eva! Do go and peep into the court and see what is becoming of that snail of a pedlar!" "He is in the hall, eating and drinking, Margaret."