"Ah! it is the little one who has brought us hither. We could stand trouble for ourselves—Maud and I—but when baby came, and the Parliament passed this Act of Six Articles—'Gardiner's Creed,' as some call it—well, it was time we got away from Greenwich before there was any stir, or any talk."
This was whispered to Sir Miles as they stood in the village street, and did but increase the mystery, as it seemed to Sir Miles. "You shall tell me all the news when we get to Paton Hall," he replied. "We have been anxiously awaiting you the last two days; your messenger said you were close behind."
"Aye, but I had to take care of Maud and my little lady; I led their mule most of the way myself."
Just then Lady Paton was seen coming towards the park-gate to greet her sister, and console her for whatever trouble had brought them thither. But one look at the happy face was enough to convince Lady Paton that, whatever had happened, it had not touched her sister's happiness; and, to her amazement, Walter Marvin claimed a greeting that he would have scorned when she was with them at Greenwich.
"What do you think of our little lady?" asked the proud and happy father; and then he took the baby from his wife and handed her to Lady Paton, that she might have the honour of carrying her to the door of Paton Hall.
"I am going to walk with Cicely," said Mistress Marvin, when her sister took the baby. "You and Miles can see after the servants and baggage, while I have a word with Cicely."
"What does it mean, dear sister?" asked Lady Paton when they were left to themselves.
"Ah, you may well ask; we owe it all to Miles. When I made up my mind that Walter must be saved from going to the stake, why, it seemed the most natural thing for us to come to you."
"But you speak in riddles," said Lady Paton. "Why should Walter be sent to the stake? That is the punishment for heretics."
"If you had only lived in Greenwich, you would have heard that Master Walter Marvin went further than most of the reformers or heretics. I followed the advice Miles gave me when he came to pay his last visit, and let the Bible do its own work, without arguing about anything. But in a very little while, that dreadful word 'transubstantiation' came up, and then I found that Walter had actually been telling some priests in the Church that he did not believe in it now. It would not have mattered much, perhaps, if the King could be depended upon, but now he has to decide what we shall, or shall not, believe, and as Gardiner and he are very close friends just now, they have drawn up between them what my husband calls 'Gardiner's Creed,' and which is now made the law of the land. It is called 'The Act of Six Articles.' And the first of these decrees, that for writing or speaking against transubstantiation, the person found guilty shall be burned at the stake. The other five are all in support of Romish doctrine, which we do not believe now. As soon as I heard about this, I went to father, and he quite agreed with me, that it would be best to get Walter out of the way as soon as possible, because of this dreadful law; and we knew he would take every opportunity of saying what he thought about the priestly pretensions involved in this doctrine. Baby was only a month old, and Walter was so fond of her, and I think it must have been God Himself that made me say one day,"