'Sir, I have read it in books of chivalry, the province of a knight is to succour the Church of God, to defend the body of God, to set his lance in rest for the Mother of God; to defend noble men cast down, and noble women; to aid holy priests and blessed nuns; to succour the despoiled poor.'
'Nay, I have read no books of chivalry,' the old man answered; 'I cannot read.'
'Ah, there be pitiful things in this world,' Katharine said, and her chest was troubled.
'You should quote Hesiodus,' Cicely mocked her suddenly from her stool. 'I marked this text when all my menfolk were slain: πλεἱη μὲν γὰρ γᾶια, πλεἱη δέ θὰλασσα so I have laughed ever since.'
Upon her, too, Katharine turned.
'You also,' she said; 'you also.'
'No, before God, I am no coward,' Cicely Elliott said. 'When all my menfolk were slain by the headsman something broke in my head, and ever since I have laughed. But before God, in my way I have tried to plague Cromwell. If he would have had my head he might have.'
'Yet what hast thou done for the Church of God?' Katharine said.
Cicely Elliott sprang to the floor and raised her hands with such violence that Throckmorton moved swiftly forward.
'What did the Church of God for me?' she cried. 'Guard your face from my nails ere you ask me that again. I had a father; I had two brothers; I had two men I loved passing well. They all died upon one day upon the one block. Did the saints of God save them? Go see their heads upon the gates of York?'