"I think you rush forward to utterly destroy the Anglican Church and to so limit the King's authority that he is no more than a show piece in the realm."
"Maybe that and maybe more than that," returned Mr. Cromwell. "Even as the Lord directeth: 'He shall send down from on high to fetch me and shall take me out of many waters.' I stand here, a poor instrument, waiting His will."
This answer bore the fervent and ambiguous character that Lord Falkland had noticed in this gentleman's speeches, and which might be due either to enthusiasm or guile, and which was, at least, difficult to answer.
"You run too much against the King," said Mr. Hyde, "and against the Church of England. Our aim was to clear her of abuses, not to destroy her."
"Our aim, Mr. Hyde?" interrupted the Member for Cambridge keenly. "Were our aims ever the same, from the very first? I saw one thing, you another; but trouble me not now with this vain discourse," he added, with a note of great strength in his hoarse voice, "when I know you are in communication with His Majesty and but seek an opportunity to leave us."
Edward Hyde flushed, but answered at once and with pride.
"I make no secret of it that, if the Parliament forget all duty to the King, I shall not."
"Are you afraid?" asked Mr. Cromwell, with more sadness than contempt. "Or do you look for promotion and honours from His Majesty? There is no satisfaction in such glory, 'but hope thou in the Lord and He shall promote thee, that thou shall possess the land; when the ungodly shall perish, thou shalt see it.'"
"You do us wrong!" exclaimed Lord Falkland. "We hold to loyalty; we think of that and not of base rewards."
"Loyalty!" exclaimed Mr. Cromwell vehemently. "We own loyalty to One higher than the King, yet what saith St. Paul: 'See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.' Therefore we go not definitely against His Majesty, but rather wait, hoping still for peaceable issues and fair days, yet abating nothing of our just demands nor of our high hopes."