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Catherine was pleased to see him so angry.

"If we'd but known, we could have saved it. Here we all are like a troop, with spades and staves . . . even now maybe we could fall in with the rogues if we went after 'em."

But Thomas Harman was not inclined for that.

"We'd only get a pike through our belly or be carried off to Lob's pound. . . . No, no, Madam Kate. I'm grieved the cross is gone, but as 'tis gone I'm glad we knew nothing of it till it was too late to meddle."

"Shame on you!" cried Catherine.

"No shame at all. If we'd meddled we should all have been marked as Pope's men."

"And where's the harm of that?"

Old Thomas Harman waved his arm towards Odimere Ridge, still smoky with beacon fires.

"The harm is on the sea—driving north'ard, praise God!"

"But the Pope never sent the King of Spain."

"Never sent him! Why, folk say that he's himself on board," cried Oliver.

"Nay, the Pope would never leave Rome."

"If he's left Rome," said young Ned, "he'll parbreak valiantly before he's home again."