FOOTNOTES
[28] “Dastardly,” for he who had with such cruel indifference sent others to the stake, the quartering block, or the axe, lost all his own courage when a like doom impended over himself—when, without a trial, he was sentenced, by the process of a “bill of attainder,” which he had first invented. In the most abject manner he fawned on the tyrant, and besought mercy in terms which were a disgrace to his manhood. Innocent of intentional treason against Henry no doubt he was; but was he more so than many of his own victims, whom on the fifth of July, 1540, he went to meet before the bar of God?
CHAPTER II.
AN EVENTFUL RAMBLE.
“Cuthbert, my son,” said Sir Walter, “thou hast brought letters from the town.”
“Here they are, father,” said Cuthbert, producing a packet which bore the traces of a long journey, “letters from across the sea.”