“Hast heard aught of, or communicated with, the traitor thou didst denounce to me privily yesterday?”

“Being holden as one of great sanctity, by common report, peradventure it were dangerous to lay hands on him without an express warranty from our chief.”

“He shall be summoned to our court.  Adam de Dutton”—­

“Stay, my lord,” said the wily dean.  “I would, with all due submission, urge that caution were best in this matter.”

“Caution, De Whalley! and to what end?  Are not the Lacies able to execute as well as to command? or is the lax ministration of justice now complained of throughout the realm prevailing here also?  By the beard of Hugh Lupus, I will be heard, and obeyed too!”

“In good sooth, my lord, I see nor let nor hindrance in this matter, provided that he whom we seek were of such ordinary capacities that be common to flesh and blood, and subject to the same laws; but when we have to cope with the devil, we must use his subtilty.  Pardon me, my lord,” continued the accuser, seeing symptoms of impatience gathering on the brow of the haughty chieftain, “though I am plain of speech, yet is it the more easily understood.  This delinquent of whom we speak hath not, as the general report testifieth, the same nature and existence as our own.  He useth magic—­I have credible testimony thereto, my lord;—­and anointeth his body so that it shall be invisible.  The free unconfined air is not more accessible to the scared bird than rocks and walls are to this impalpable mockery of our form; and yet he may be dealt with.”

“Troth, a man of many faculties.  How came he thus?”

“The vulgar do imagine that by dint of great maceration and humility, by prayer and fasting, he hath attained communion with angels; but I suspect they be those of the bottomless pit!”

“And why should he withhold the deed?”

“I know not, save that he purposeth by fraud and subtilty to cast these fair possessions into the treasury of the holy church, and build an abbey hereabout, the like whereof hath not been seen for glory and magnificence.”

“Doth he then deny our right to the inheritance?  The Lady Fitz-Eustace had a fair copy of the deed, purporting to be sent by the holy confessor who shrived the testator in his extremity.  But how hath this canting hermit gotten the writing into his possession?”

“I know not, my lord, unless it be that the like arts have enabled him to appropriate it by other means than those of honesty and good faith.  But give me a band of men, together with leave so to deal with him as I shall see fit, and I trust ere long to render a good account of the matter.  I will come upon him unawares, ere he can render his body inaccessible, and lay hold of the traitor.”

“Traitor!” echoed a voice from behind a screen at the lower extremity of the hall.  Every eye was turned in that direction; when lo! the hermit himself, the end and object of their deliberations, stalked forth, unquestioned and unobstructed.