"I d?an't care two straws about that. Albert wur born and christened Church, and he's not going to die chapel because a lousy Methody sings hymns over him when he's sick and d?an't know better. If I find that feller on my pl?ace again, I'll break every bone in his body."
FORE:The monk was at length perceived, for the treasurer, on raising his eyes, met the glance of father John. "My lord bishop," said he, "yonder stands the monk, John Ball!"After a night of cursings and trampings in his room, he took the fermenting dregs of his wrath to Cheat Land. It was queer that he should go for sympathy to Alice Jury, who was chief in the enemy's camp. But[Pg 231] though he knew she would not take his part, she would not be like the others, leering and cackling. She would give him something vital, even if it was only a vital opposition. That was all the difference between her and everyone elseshe opposed him not because she was flabby or uninterested or enterpriseless, but because she really hated what he strove for. She was his one strong candid enemy, so he went to her as his only friend.
CHAPTER IV.Now he found himself thrown into a kind of dazzle by Alice Jury. He could not explain it. Her personal[Pg 214] beauty was negligible"a liddle stick of a thing," he called her; their conversation had been limited almost entirely to her tactless questions and his forbearing answers."Thomas Calverley," replied John, "I believe you do love my sister, but I cannot force her inclinations;I will not even strive to bias her mind; there is a sympathy in hearts predestined to unite, which attracts them towards each other;if that secret sympathy exist not between you, ye are not destined to become as one.""My Lord Bishop, the Baron de Boteler did not counsel us to land: he was only doubting how far the impudence of those commons might go." Sudbury, knowing that soft words might turn away wrath, and perceiving that little good would be effected in the present case by pursuing a different course, suffered Sir Robert Hales to intreat, even as a father would entreat his only son, that the young king should not peril his life by venturing his royal person among those who were up in arms against his authority. But when he saw that Richard's ingenuous mind was touched by the earnest manner of the treasurer, he then prudently put his own weight into the balance, and the scale turned as he desired.