He would have died a martyr with the grim constancy that he had seen in others, and never lamented what he suffered for conscience' sake.

But he had grown to be a thoroughly soured and embittered man, and had spent the past twenty or more years of his life in a ceaseless savage brooding which had made his abode anything but a happy place for his two children, the offspring of a late and rather peculiar marriage with a woman by birth considerably his inferior.
The firmness without the bitterness of his father's face was reflected in that of the son as Cuthbert fearlessly finished his speech.
"I am a true son of the Church.

I am no outcast--no heretic.

But I will not suffer my soul to be starved.

It is the law of this land that whatever creed men hold in their hearts--whether the tenets of Rome or those of the Puritans of Scotland--that they shall outwardly conform themselves to the forms prescribed by the Establishment, and shall attend the churches of the land; and you know as well as I do that there be many priests of our faith who bid their flocks obey this law, and submit themselves to the powers that be.