"I have had no letter from you since last summer, and would fain have journeyed to see how it fared with you all, if my duties at Court would have suffered me to be absent. But I am never sure that the King will not need my service at any moment, for he grows more impetuous and impatient every day, and none would dare to say to him: 'Guildford hath departed on a journey,' if he should call for me."
"The King's service is no light burden, I trow," said Sir Miles; "but what of our letters, my father?" he asked.
"They are doubtless safe in the hands of one of Cromwell's agents, to be brought forward against one or other of us, if ever we should be caught tripping in word or deed in any matter concerning the King's supremacy."
"And it is really true, my father, that the Queen, my mistress, is dead," said Cicely with a sigh. "I wonder whether she ever forgave me for leaving the convent and embracing a secular life," she added.
"You had no choice in the matter, sweetheart," said her husband, with a smile, thinking of her rescue in the streets of Oxford.
"I am afraid I was only too willing to be taken captive, and hidden by you," answered his wife with a smile.
"Aye! You may have been the first novice in England to break her vows concerning the monastic life, but there have been many since, I trow, who have gladly followed in your steps; for this breaking up of the monasteries and convents has been hard and cruel to the helpless women folk who have lived a sheltered life."
"Aye, we have heard of this," said Sir Miles, "for many of the monks have come to us asking for a piece of bread, and this has increased the numbers of beggars enormously."
"Yes, and this is done in the name of the Reformation, and makes good men like Walter Marvin say they detest it," put in Lady Guildford, who was always trying to find some excuse for her younger daughter's husband when she was present.
"Aye, it is all very well, good dame, to try and find excuses for Master Walter Marvin," said Sir Harry, "but there is another side to that question, and none can deny that these monks and nuns lived an idle, useless, often vicious life, caring neither for God nor man. The Parliament would not have presented the picture they did, in their petition to the King that helped on this royal supremacy, if the clergy at large, and the monks in particular, had led clean, honest lives,—doing their duty to their fellows. Look at the rules passed by Convocation, and at the command of the bishops, for the guidance of the clergy and reformation of the Church. It was decreed that priests should no longer keep shops or taverns, play at dice or other forbidden games, pass the night in suspected places, be present at disreputable shows, go about with sporting-dogs, or go about with hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey on their wrists. If a priest is found doing any of these things now, he is liable to be fined; but there is very little change as yet, and with such a clergy how are the people to be instructed in the Word of God?" asked Sir Harry.