"It could not be compassed, Phyllis; and granting it so should, to what good purpose? Set in case that she came forth this morrow, a free woman--whither is she to wend, and what to do? To her son? He will have none of her. To her daughter? Man saith she hath scantly more freedom than her mother in truth, being ruled of an ill husband that giveth her no leave to work. To King Edward? It should but set him in the briars with divers other princes, the King of France and the Duke of Bretagne more in especial. To my Lady Princess? Verily, she is good woman, yet is she mother of my Lady Duchess; and though I cast no doubt she should essay to judge the matter righteously, yet 'tis but like that she should lean to her own child, which doubtless seeth through her lord's eyes; and it should set her in the briars no less than King Edward. Whither, then, is she to go for whom there is no room on middle earth [Note 2], and whose company all men avoid? Nay, my maid, for the Lady Marguerite there is no home save Heaven; and there is none to be glad of her company save Him that was yet more lonely than she, and whose foes, like hers, were they of His own house." "'Tis sore pitiful!" said Amphillis, looking up with the tears in her eyes. "`Pitiful'! ay, never was sadder case sithence that saddest of all in the Garden of Gethsemane. Would God she would seek Him, and accept of His pity!" "Surely, our Lady is Christian woman!" responded Amphillis, in a rather astonished tone. "What signifiest thereby?" "Why she that doth right heartily believe Christ our Lord to have been born and died, and risen again, and so forth." "What good should that do her?" Amphillis stared, without answering. "If that belief were very heartfelt, it should be life and comfort; but meseemeth thy manner of belief is not heartfelt, but headful. To believe that a man lived and died, Phyllis, is not to accept his help, and to affy thee in his trustworthiness. Did it ever any good and pleasure to thee to believe that one Julius Caesar lived over a thousand years ago?" "No, verily; but--" Amphillis did not like to say what she was thinking, that no appropriation of good, nor sensation of pleasure, had ever yet mingled with that belief in the facts concerning Jesus Christ on which she vaguely relied for salvation. She thought a moment, and then spoke out. "Mistress, did you mean there was some other fashion of believing than to think certainly that our Lord did live and die?" "Set in case, Phyllis, that thou shouldst hear man to say, `I believe in Master Godfrey, but not in Master Matthew,' what shouldst reckon him to signify? Think on it." "I suppose," said Amphillis, after a moment's pause for consideration, "I should account him to mean that he held Master Godfrey for a true man, in whom man might safely affy him; but that he felt not thus sure of Master Matthew." "Thou wouldst not reckon, then, that he counted Master Matthew as a fabled man that was not alive?"