'But had we not better prompt her somehow, to let it be on a stormy night?' 'Leave that to me. I can introduce it. True, a night of thunder and lightning would be a very plausible suggestion; and it would be a good subject for us to descant upon the vengeance of Heaven against the heretics--leave it to me!' CHAPTER XLVII. PRIDE. Alice, full of A. and E., received the humble Master Cavendish in even a more cold and distant manner than he had ever seen her put on before. 'Thy master is dead? I know it! Dost thou come to claim ought of me?' 'No, lady, I want nothing; I did but think, knowing thy former interest in my poor lord, and my close attachment to his person, that some little information of his latter end might be acceptable to the Lady Alice, from her humble servant.' 'Another time it might have been. I have only one question to ask of thee: was he shriven by a priest before he died?' 'He was, by Doctor Palmes.' 'Then I ask no more. He died a Catholic.' 'He did, lady; and recommended his royal master to look well after these heretics and heresies so prevalent.' 'Then why did he not order Lord De Freston to be burnt!' Even Cavendish, with all his knowledge of her character, little expected this; but when he afterwards heard her speak of those hospitable friends, and all connected with them, as if she would joy to see them tortured upon the rack, flayed alive, or burnt at the stake, his blood chilled within him, and he truly thought within himself: 'This is Cold Hall indeed!' 'I ask no questions,' she added, 'of thy master's fortunes. The great Cardinal died before he departed for York. He died as soon as I left him. His was but a pitiful struggle afterwards. Had he been as firm to Rome as I would have had him, he might now have been his master's lord. But vengeance yet awaits the enemies of Rome, and weak instruments may be used for their overthrow. Are you a staunch friend to the Pope?' This was a leading question to Cavendish, who, at that time, neither wished to be thought a heretic by denying the Supremacy of the Pope, nor to be disloyal to his new master by denying his supremacy in the visible church in matters purely temporal. But he knew well that the Papacy must have the jurisdiction of temporalities as well as spiritualities in the church, and that Alice held the foreign pontiff to be her supreme idol. He had a difficult question to answer, but one which his tact alone could elude, so as not to create bitter animadversion against him. He therefore replied-- 'The Pope, lady, has so many staunch advocates like thyself, that the friendship of such insignificant beings as I am could redound but little to his greatness. Thou, lady, art, I am sure, his warm friend, and thine influence in this neighborhood must be paramount. Has the Pope lost any power hereabouts?'