"Crown Jesus Lord of all!"
Instantly they were seized, and hurried out of one of the side entrances. With the utmost difficulty a way was cleared for the passage of the priests and the three victims—the bugler going ahead sounding sharp notes of warning on his instrument.
They reached the front of the cathedral, at last. The whole of the space in the front, at the sides, and far away into "The Fan" was packed with a seething, excited mass of human life.
Twenty feet high, a light but strong scaffold had been rapidly, and practically silently, erected—the whole structure having all its separate parts fitted with automatic lockings. The scaffold stood just outside the railings that fenced the cathedral from the "Fan."
On the platform of the scaffold was a conical-shaped block, enamelled in a brilliant red. A huge fellow, leaning on the handle of a wide-bladed gleaming axe, stood by the side of the block.
The trio of Protestants were taken up the steps of the scaffold. Two priests accompanied them. The chief of the two priests, he who had led the chant in the cathedral, held up before the trio a silver figure of Apleon, about eighteen inches long, and, (amid the intense silence all around, his words were distinctly heard) cried: "Will you worship God?"
"We do worship God—but we will not worship either the Anti-christ, Anti-God, or his image!"
It was Ralph who, in ringing fearless tones, replied, the other two responding with:
"Amen! Amen! to our God who sitteth on The Throne, and to the Lamb, for ever!"
A savage roar swept upwards from the maddened mass below.