I raised my glasses again and took another look at the Union Jack, blown out from its flag-post and displaying plainly its tangled crosses. Then I noticed that men were entering the churchyard singly, in pairs and in little groups of three and four. "The Dean," I said, "must have some sort of service in church to-day. If it isn't the Harvest Thanksgiving it must be an anniversary of something. What happened at this time of year, Godfrey? I can't remember anything." I still stared through my glasses. I was struck by the unusual fact that only men were going into the church. Then, quite suddenly, I saw that every man was carrying a gun. I laid down my glasses and turned to Godfrey. "I wish," I said, "that you'd go down to the town--not to the church, mind, Godfrey, but into the town, and ask somebody--ask the police sergeant at the barrack what is going on in the church." Godfrey is always at his very best when he has to find out something. He would have made almost an ideal spy. If any one is ever wanted by the nation for the more disagreeable part of secret service work I can confidently recommend Godfrey. Half an hour later he returned to me hot and breathless. "The police sergeant told me, Excellency, that the Dean's going to march all the Orangemen and a lot of other men along with them to Belfast for the Unionist demonstration. They are having service in the church first and they've all got rifles." I have all my life steadily objected to politics being mixed with religion. I hold most strongly that the Church ought not to be dominated by politicians. The Church is degraded and religion is brought into contempt when they are used by party leaders. But--the bells had ceased ringing. The hymn was now, no doubt, being sung by the men within. It occurred to me suddenly that on this occasion it was not the politicians who were taking possession of religion, but religion which was asserting its right to dominate politics. This is plainly quite a different matter. I can even imagine that politics might be improved if religion asserted itself a little more frequently than it does. I still maintain that it is only right and fair to keep politics out of the Church. I am not at all sure that it is right to keep the Church out of politics. "I told the sergeant," said Godfrey, "that he had better go and stop them at once." "Oh, did you?" I said. "Do you know, Godfrey, that's just the kind of suggestion I'd expect you to make under the circumstances." "Thanks awfully, Excellency," said Godfrey. "I'm awfully glad you're pleased." There are besides the sergeant three constables in our police barrack. They are armed as a rule with short round sticks. On very important occasions they carry an inferior kind of firearm called a carbine. There were, I guessed about three hundred men in the church, and they were armed with modern rifles. Godfrey's faith in the inherent majesty of the law was extremely touching. "Did he go?" I asked.