"It is ill work drawing down the charge of heresy," he remarked, as he got the boys at last in full march homeward. "Any other charge one can laugh to scorn; but no man may tell where orthodoxy ends and heresy begins. Godly bishops have been sent to prison, and priests to the stake. How may others hope to escape?"
"Tush!" answered Bertram lightly; "there was never a heretic at Chad yet, and never will be one, I trow. Was I to see a poor cripple like that done to death without striking a blow in his defence--he in Chadwick, of which my father is lord of the manor? Was I to see Mortimer's men turning a gay holiday into a scene of horror and affright? Never! I were unworthy of my name had I not interposed. The man was no heretic, and if he had been--"
"Have a care, sir, how thou speakest; have a care, I entreat thee! Thou knowest not what ears may be listening!" cried Warbel, in a real fright.
Bertram laughed half scornfully.
"I have no need to be ashamed of what I think. I am a true son of the Church, and fear not what the vile Mortimer scum may say. But to pleasure thee, good Warbel, I will say no more. We will make our way home with all speed, and tell the tale to our father. I doubt not he will say it was well done. The Lord of Chad would ever have the defenceless protected, and stand between them and the false and treacherous bloodhounds of Mortimer. I have no fear that he will blame me. He would have done the same in my place."
"I trow he would," answered Warbel in a low voice; "but that does not make the deed done without peril of some sort following to the doer."
[Chapter V]: A Warning.
Sir Oliver and his wife listened with some anxiety to the boys' story of the rescue of the peddler. Bertram observed the cloud upon his father's brow, and eagerly asked if he had done wrong.
"I say not so, my son," replied the knight. "I would ever have a child of mine merciful and just--the protector of the oppressed, and the champion of the defenceless; nevertheless--"
"And it was those bloodhounds of Mortimer's who were setting upon him," broke in Julian vehemently. "What right had they to molest him? Could we of Chad, upon our own soil, stand by and see it done? I trow, father, that thou wouldst have done the same hadst thou been there."