“You and yours will attend, Sir Oliver?”

“Yes; we must needs do that.  But you?”

Brother Emmanuel lifted his head and threw it back with a gesture of resolution and independence.

“Sir Oliver,” he said, “upon the day when your household is bidden to the priory, I cease, by the command of my superior, to be a member of this household.  Upon that day your command over me (if I may use the word)—­your responsibility over me—­ceases.  Whatever I may do or not do is no concern of yours.  I am no longer the instructor of your sons, nor the priest within your walls.  What I do I do of mine own self.  None can rightly call you to task for it.  Let that be your safeguard; let that be your answer to all questions.  The prior has ordained that from that day I cease to remain here.  From the dawning of that day you have no part nor lot in my life.  I take its control into mine own hands, and it were better you should not even know whither I go nor what I do.”

Sir Oliver bent a searching look upon him.

“So be it,” he answered, after a moment’s thought.  “But this one word I say to thee:  Thou hast been true and faithful to me and mine; wherefore my roof and my walls shall be thy shelter until thou goest forth of thine own freewill.  Be not afraid to remain here with me.  I will defend thee with every power I have until such time as thou mayest safely escape beyond the seas.”

He held out his hand.  The monk took it and pressed it between both of his.

“The Lord deal with thee and thine as thou hast dealt with me,” was the reply, spoken in deep, earnest accents.

The knight bent his head in response to the benediction; and Brother Emmanuel moved silently away, closely followed by Edred, who looked pale and troubled.

“Thou dost not think he will present himself at the priory with the rest of the world?” asked Lady Chadgrove, with anxiety in face and voice; and her husband thoughtfully shook his head as he made reply: 

“I trow not.  I have spoken to him of that before, and he was very well resolved to fly the country and strive to finish the work he has begun, to join the band who are toiling might and main to bring a purer and holier spirit within the pale of the Church and her servants.  It is a work to which he has long felt called, and he believes that it will be faithfully carried out somewhere, if not here.  For a while he will be safer beyond the seas; but he may return and join with those in Oxford and London who are toiling in the same cause.  He knows of the sloop—­where it lies and when it sails; and I trow he is laying plans of his own.  It were better not to ask of these.  I would rather walk in ignorance.  A man cannot betray, however inadvertently, what he knows not, and the subtle skill in questioning possessed by our reverend prior might win the secret from any unskilled person ere he knew he had revealed it.  I know not what he means to do, nor shall I seek to know.  But he has courage, spirit, and a consciousness of integrity which may carry him through much.  Methinks he has judged wisely and well both for us and himself.