thick as groundsel."

Wherewith the two canons of the old school waddled away, arm in arm,
and Bolt put out his head, leered at Ambrose, and bade him shog off,
and not come sneaking after other folk's shoes.

Sooth to say, Ambrose was relieved by his rejection. If he were not
to obtain admission in any capacity to St. Paul's School, he felt
more drawn to Tibble's friend the printer; for the self-seeking
luxurious habits into which so many of the beneficed clergy had
fallen were repulsive to him, and his whole soul thirsted after that
new revelation, as it were, which Colet's sermon had made to him.
Yet the word heresy was terrible and confusing, and a doubt came
over him whether he might not be forsaking the right path, and be
lured aside by false lights.

He would think it out before he committed himself. Where should he
do so in peace? He thought of the great Minster, but the nave was
full of a surging multitude, and there was a loud hum of voices
proceeding from it, which took from him all inclination to find his
way to the quieter and inner portions of the sanctuary.

Then he recollected the little Pardon Church, where he had seen the
Dance of Death on the walls; and crossing the burial-ground he
entered, and, as he expected, found it empty, since the hours for
masses for the dead were now past. He knelt down on a step,
repeated the sext office, in warning for which the bells were
chiming all round, covering his face with his hands, and thinking
himself back to Beaulieu; then, seating himself on a step, leaning
against the wall, he tried to think out whether to give himself up