An old priest in the white fur of a canon came gently up the deck from behind. . . .
"Your Eminence . . ." he said, "they have signalled up the line. . . . I thought, perhaps——"
The new Cardinal started as one from a dream.
"What is it, Father Jervis? . . ."
The old man looked at him closely; then he laid his hand on his arm.
"Your Eminence, the King is waiting. Do you not remember? Your
Eminence was to give the signal."
Beneath, like huge voices speaking a single word all at once, roared the old guns from the Tower and Greenwich and the palaces.
The Cardinal shook his head.
"I . . . I forget," he said; "I was thinking. . . . What am I to do?"
The old priest looked at him again earnestly, without speaking.
Then he leaned forward closer still.