They were talking of the proceedings of the great ecclesiastical council, which was then sitting in the Swiss archbishopric of Basle, and of the laws it was framing for the extirpation of heresy—topics upon which all men were beginning to question, or rather to sound each other, as such questions, in those days of the stake and faggot, were fraught with danger. They conversed in French; but finding that Gray sat resolutely silent, one turned and said to him abruptly, "Pray, sir, what think you of Procopius?"
"Of—who?" said Gray, with hesitation.
"Procopius, the Shaved."
"The leader of the Hussites?"
"Yes—the protesting heretics."
"I think him a bold Bohemian captain," was the cautious reply.
"What think you of his disputation at the holy council of Basle?" continued the other.
"I am not capable of judging."
"Peste! Did he not bear hard on the monks?" persisted the querist.
"I am not aware," replied Gray, with increasing reserve, "as I have not heard; but what said he?"