"Least of all," he said, "would I trust those of my own household. I
know your cousin for a Catholic, Mr. Mallock, but you will forgive me
for saying that it is from Catholics that we have to fear the most. I do
not mean by that that Mr. Jermyn is not excellent and sincere; for I
know nothing of him except what you have told me yourself. But zeal
without discretion is a very firebrand; and prudence without zeal may
become something very like cowardice; and either of these two things may
injure the Catholic cause irreparably in the days that are coming. St.
Peter's was the one, and Judas', I take it, was the other; for I hold
Judas to have been by far the greater coward of the two."

* * * * *

When I came out into the passage with him, I kneeled down and asked his
blessing; for I knew that this was of a truth a man of God.




CHAPTER IV


It was a little after noon next day that first we saw the Norman church
upon the hill, and then the roofs of Hare Street.

I had been astonished at the badness of the roads from London, coming as
I had from Rome, where paved ways go out in every direction. We came out
by Bishopsgate, by the Ware road, and arrived at Waltham Cross a little
before sunset, riding through heavy dust that had hardly been laid at