'Yes. He will be executed for high treason.'
'How dreadful!' said I, adding 'How grieved my dear lady will be, although he has been so cruel to her!'
'And many others, braver than he, were sent to the Tower,' continued my lover, 'and amongst them even Bishop Ridley.'
'Bishop Ridley!'
'Yes. For preaching that sermon at St. Paul's Cross. They say it is like to cost him his life.'
'His life! Will Mary be so wicked as to kill a clergyman because of what he said in his sermon?' asked I.
'Yes,' answered Sir Hubert. 'She is capable of doing far more than that. Did I not tell you what a Papist's rule in England would mean, Margery? Rivers of blood will flow. And they will be Protestants on whom Mary will wreak her vengeance. There is no animosity in the world so bitter, as what is called religious animosity. Remember what they did to our Lord. Think you the Jews of old would have crucified so cruelly an innocent man if it had not been a matter of religion that was at issue?'
'True! true!' I said, wondering at the astuteness of my dear one. 'But, alas!' I sobbed, the next moment. 'If Mary will be so bitter against her Protestant enemies, what, oh! what will be the fate of my dear Lady Jane?'
Sir Hubert looked very grave.
'I can see no hope for her,' he said, 'if Mary is allowed to reign.'