Part 13 (1/2)
We must not leave a nook or a cranny unvisited, and must make a mighty coil. Thou takest me, brother, dost thou not?”
Edred made a quick, eager sign of a.s.sent.
”Ay, Julian, I do; and when we have done all that, let us back to the priory again. We must whisper in our father's ear that Brother Emmanuel is safe. Then will he act with a freer hand. And it were better, perchance, that we were all there to ride back with him when he takes his leave.”
Julian a.s.sented at once to this proposition; and forth went the boys, at first calling aloud the name of their tutor, and then halting, always within earshot of one of the spies, to debate where he could have concealed himself, darting hither and thither, as if suddenly remembering some new place, and ever returning disappointed and vexed.
”He is a veritable fox!” cried Julian, flinging his cap on the ground in a well-a.s.sumed tempest of chagrin. ”He must have left Chad altogether, for not a trace of him is here; and I looked to have the pleasure of bringing him ourselves before the reverend prior, to atone for having helped that other pestilent fellow to avoid for a while the hand of the law. A plague upon him and his cunning ways! Unless he have found the secret chamber our father knows of, and which he once took us to see, there be no other place in all Chad where he can be lurking, unless he has been moving from spot to spot at our approach. A pest upon the crafty rogue!”
”We shall do no good loitering here, since he be really gone,”
remarked Edred, in a tone of vexation very like his brother's; ”perchance he may have fallen into the hands of the prior through the watch of which he spoke. I trust it may be so. But for us, I trow we had better go back to see the end of the day's spectacle.
We can do no more at Chad. If he is hiding he will not dare come forth now, with all the folks returning so soon; and if he has got clean away, nothing we can do will bring him back.”
Julian grumbled in the finest phrases he could think of as the two pursued their way back towards the priory, increasing their speed as they left Chad behind, and very quickly gaining the meadow, where the servants were already beginning to collect the horses and get them ready for their masters.
The day's proceedings were over. Refreshments were being served in the refectory to all of the better sort. Sir Oliver's two younger sons had never been missed; but Edred contrived to slip into the hall, and in pa.s.sing beside his father's chair to whisper in his ear the four simple words:
”Brother Emmanuel is safe!”
None heard the whisper, not even Bertram, who was sitting next his father, though he read it in his brother's eye the next moment.
Edred had affected to catch the clasp of his belt against his father's chair as he pa.s.sed by, and in pausing to free it had bent his head and spoken the brief message.
No change pa.s.sed over Sir Oliver's face. Not a creature present observed the trifling by-play. Wine had circulated freely, and much laughing and talking were going on. The prior had unbent from his judicial severity, and even the Lord of Mortimer was smiling and bland, although there was something in his aspect that suggested the fierce feline play of a man-eating creature biding its time and toying with its victim.
Just before the close of the feast Sir Oliver rose to his feet.
”My lord prior, and you knights and gentlemen,” he said suddenly, addressing all those who sat at the board in one comprehensive glance round the table. ”I have been not a little disturbed and astonished today by hearing that there is ill known of one who has been long a member of my household--Brother Emmanuel--whom the reverend prior himself sent forth to be the instructor of my sons, and who has always comported himself right reverently and seemly in my house. But inasmuch as there is cause of offence in him, and that he has this day refused obedience to his lawful superior, and has not come at the bidding of the prior, I cannot but own him in fault, and decline to have further dealings with him. I do not know whether he is yet at Chad. I have not seen him since his farewell last evening. But if he be yet there, let the Lord of Mortimer, or you, holy father, send a company of servants to bring him thence.
”I have heard it whispered around that he is hiding within the walls of Chad, and that we of that household know where he lurks.
My reply to that whisper is a denial (which I will take upon oath if need be) that I know aught whatever about him; and furthermore, I will throw open my house, upon any day and at any time, to whatever persons shall be sent to seek him, and will aid them in every possible way in the finding of the offender.”
A murmur of approval went round the company. The prior looked pleased, and a smile crossed his face.
The only person who did not seem gratified by this openness was the Lord of Mortimer, whose face contracted sourly, and who gave a keen glance at his rival, as though he would have read his very soul.
But the calm gaze with which Sir Oliver returned this look did not appear to restore his equanimity, and he flashed a glance at his son-in-law which plainly betokened surprise and chagrin.
”Well spoken, Sir Oliver,” said the prior; ”and since I have excellent reason to know that the brother has not left Chad, and cannot do it without my knowledge, it is plain to me that he is hiding in some place there, albeit all unknown to you and yours.
Wherefore, on the morrow, I myself, together with my good friend the Lord of Mortimer, will present ourselves at Chad, and make full search, and we shall no doubt find the heretic monk cowering away in some undreamed-of hiding place, and will drag him thence to the fate he so well merits.
”Chad has its secrets, has it not? I have heard of them in days gone by.”
”It has several cunning nooks and crannies, but all of these will I myself display to you upon the morrow,” replied the knight calmly; and the Lord of Mortimer arose with a crafty smile upon his face, and addressed the prior in these words:
”Reverend father, I do not willingly speak ill of my neighbours, least of all of one who is now near akin to me through the marriage of my daughter with Sir Edward, who comes of the old stock of Chad.
Yet I cannot but state here, in this place, that I hold Sir Oliver to have drawn down suspicion upon himself by failing to give up Brother Emmanuel a week ago when it was demanded of him. There be something to my mind strange and unworthy in such an act; and I here call upon all men to witness that I verily believe we shall find this traitor monk sheltering within the walls of Chad, and that if this be so I shall openly accuse Sir Oliver before all the world--before the king himself--of harbouring traitors and heretics, and shall make pet.i.tion that Chad and all that pertains to it be forfeit, as the penalty for such evil courses, and be given to the rightful lord by inheritance--Sir Edward Chadwell.”